


The Chair

by EgyptianDreamer



Category: Hellsing
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alucard and Seras forever!, Alucard/Seras, AlucardxSeras, AluxSer, F/M, Integra Hellsing is a minor character, Minor Character Deaths, Paranormal, Romance, Strong Language, Time Travel, dark past for Seras, possible smut in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-11-05 08:45:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11009979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EgyptianDreamer/pseuds/EgyptianDreamer
Summary: It started when she bought an item from the auction, it seemed normal enough, a simple antique chair that had once belonged to a noble. Nothing strange about that right? WRONG! WARNING: Lemons may be posted, but the rating is for language and possible violence. I hate Integra too, so if you're a fan of hers read at your own risk.





	1. The Auction

She stood along with about a thousand other people at the outside auction in front of the old Carfax Abbey as she watched the items being brought up for bidders, still clad in her heavy and hot Police officer uniform, the sun beating down on her relentlessly and making her fan herself with her hand, her sapphire blue eyes squinted to see the items as she moved a lock of woven gold hair away from her eyes path.

"Lot number six-six-seven ladies and gentlemen," the auctioneer announced.

Up until that point, nothing in the auction had really caught her attention enough to buy, but it had ranged from old draperies still covered in dust and grime, to antique mirrors, from old and finely painted pottery, to old bibles. The chair that people were bidding for however caught and held her attention.

Red velvet cushioned the back and seat of the chair, genuine oak were what the chair was made of . Even though the chair was extremely old due to to everyone being so afraid to go within the old Abbey's walls due to the legend, and had likely been exposed to the elements; its condition was practically like new and she got the distinct impression it had once belonged to a noble as one had to have quite a bit of money back in the day for something as "fine" as that.

She raised her hand as high as she could, walking through the crowd as she did so the auctioneer could see her better, her short stature could hinder her from gaining her prize after all, thankfully he seen her.

"That's three-hundred, looking for three-fifty? Three fifty. Now looking for four-hundred?"

The officer, quickly raised her hand again, quickly eyeing the crowd for whoever was bidding against her and her eyes narrowed at who she seen. She knew who the woman was, Integra Hellsing, and it may have just been the legend surrounding the Hellsing family, but she had always despised the heiress.

"Four-hundred. Now looking for four-fifty?"

She glared death at the platinum blonde in the olive green suit, large spectacles, and sized her up. Integra gave off the impression of a cold and calm woman, but Seras had a feeling that underneath all of her money, caviar, and expensive cigars, she could easily be taken down if she was in the officer's line of work.

Integra raised her hand again and she copied the action automatically, not willing to let her prize slip away to the likes of Integra Hellsing, it wasn't so much about the chair anymore as it was about her pride and hatred of the other blonde.

"That's five hundred. Looking for five-fifty?"

Her arm was stiff ready to raise her hand again if she needed to, her now hard eyes glaring at Integra, practically daring her to bid again.

"Five hundred, going once, going twice....SOLD!"

She grinned her cocky victory when the mallet was hit on the podium showing she had won and she turned her eyes away from the heiress who had just turned to look at her and glared at her cocky grin, making her grin turn into a full blown mocking smile.

"Your name miss?" The auctioneer asked as she stepped up to claim her prize.

"Seras Victoria, I can pay now."

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Dreamer: First chapter of many. I have nine chapters in total already. They will all be uploaded today. I hope you enjoy~


	2. It Begins

Seras, stood in her living room sipping on a glass of red wine with her phone to her ear, listening to her boss prattle on about why he needed her to come in and she sighed as began to pace, placing her goblet on the coffee table. She wouldn't mind coming in if it was an emergency or all of the officers were off the clock, but that wasn't the case. The man wanted to take some of the officers out for drinks which of course would make them under staffed for the evening.

"I'm sorry sir, I understand that you and the guys like to take the edge of sometimes..." More like more often than not. "But I've already been drinking myself."

"Oh really? What have you been drinking hmm?"

The way he said that got a bit under her skin, it was as if he didn't believe her when she said that, but she controlled her voice when she answered.

"Yes sir, red wine. I had one goblet already..."

As she said this, her blue eyes glanced up at the chair she had purchased that very day, smiling again as she seen it. She had outwitted...rather outbid Integra Hellsing for that chair and that fact would make her happy every time she looked at the piece of furniture. The rich bitch had probably taken a hit to her pride for that which made it even better, but the thing that took the cake was the legend. It was Abraham van Hellsing which had staked the count after tracking him from that very Abbey and to Transylvania so it was her way of spitting in the eye of the old man. Sure it was just a legend to most, but she was open minded and believed there could have actually been a Count back then, and Abraham could have in fact staked the vampire all those years ago. After all, didn't every story have a little bit of truth to them?

She was startled from her thoughts by her boss shouting her name over the phone and she realized only then he must have been saying something to her which made her blush when she was caught being a space case.

"S-Sorry sir, what were you saying?"

The man on the other side sighed as if he was exasperated with dealing with her which ruffled her once again as she tore her gaze away from the chair and picked her goblet back up, taking a drink to calm herself.

"You must be more under the influence than I thought, Victoria. Alright, stay home. You come in again tomorrow correct?"

"Yes sir, tomorrow evening."

"Very good, the boys and I will have our night tomorrow. See you then, Victoria."

She rolled her eyes as she took another drink before placing the goblet down once again, but couldn't keep herself from turning again and looking at the chair, but this time it wasn't vacant. She moved her phone from her ear as she stared with her eyes wide and locked on a shadowed figure which stared back at her with fiery red eyes. Her every instinct as an officer should have been to reach for her gun, but not only was it not at her hip as she had showered and changed once she got home and put the chair where it sat now, but she didn't feel threatened. The figure, what ever it was seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see it. She watched with her eyes growing wider as the figure stood and its form billowed like it was made of the blackest of smokes as it took a step toward her, but she could only watch, not step back or forward as her eyes remained locked with the figure's own.

"Victoria!"

She blinked then and suddenly that figure was no longer there which made her look around and then back to the chair, but nothing was there which left her baffled for a long moment before her eyes landed back on her goblet and she groaned as she put the phone back to her ear.

"I apologize sir, I must have less of an alcohol tolerance than I thought. I can't seem to stay focused."

"I thought so, yes you made a good call on wanting to stay home."

"Yes, sir."

"I'll see you tomorrow evening."

"Yes, sir."

"Goodnight, Victoria."

"Goodnight sir."

She sighed as she flipped her phone closed after hearing the 'click' on the other side and looked again at the chair which sat there harmless and vacant, she was sure that figure had been really there, it really stepped toward her without wavering in form like a hallucination may have, but it had just vanished when she'd blinked she couldn't deny that...but still...

She walked toward the chair, her eyes on the floor to see if there had been footprints on the soft white carpet beneath her feet after the figure had been walking towards her, after all it looked like it had been made of smoke, but seen nothing, but white carpet. She sighed, thinking herself stupid by this point when she made it to the chair, pressing her hand to the chair seat, expecting it to be room temperature.

Warm.


	3. Strange Occurrence

She pulled her hand away quickly as if she was burned, her blue eyes wide as she stared at the seemingly innocent piece of furniture just sitting there as if nothing had happened. The seat of the chair had been warm, as if someone had been sitting there and as she looked more closely, she noticed an indentation in the material, again as if someone had been sitting there. As she watched, the indent in the material slowly went back to its original shape, so slow that she wondered if maybe she had imagined the indent with her unfocused eyes and if the warmth had been a trick of her mind just like that shadow figure before, alcohol could do strange things to people after all.

She sighed then, taking a step back before turning and walking back to her original spot, picking up her glass of wine and taking a sip, it wouldn't do to waste the expensive liquor after all.

As she took in a breath, the smell of something burning reached her nose and she stiffened, looking toward the chair again, expecting to see the figure of shadowy smoke again, but didn't see it this time. Did that put her mind at ease? No.

The figure had began walking toward her before after all and just because it hadn't been there when she blinked didn't mean that it hadn't been fast enough to move out of sight, she was a believer of the paranormal so if could have been a spirit that had been attached to that object which she had unknowingly let into her home. She hadn't felt threatened by the spirit, but that had been because it seemed surprised to see her, after the initial shock had worn off though, it may have been a different story.

Would it have been angry that it was in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar woman?

Would it be angry she could see it like some spirits were when seen?

Would it speak to her?

Could it speak?

The smell of smoke got stronger as she wondered this, her eyes still glued to the chair, but there was nothing there so she turned, there was nothing to the left by the door and then to the right....smoke.

Her heart leaped into her throat see the smoke there and for a minute she was going to ask what it wanted, who it was, until she realized, this smoke was different. It was more grey than black and as she calmed she realized it was coming from the kitchen. She gasped when seeing this and in her panic, dropped her goblet of wine which spilled all over her white carpet.

**********************************************************************************

One burned chicken dinner, a call to Yauatcha, two empty take out boxes, and hours of scrubbing later, Seras' stomach was full, the wine was cleaned off the carpet, and she was sobered up and ready to go to bed.

She stifled a yawn with her hand as she stood up, grabbing the two take out boxes in one hand and moving the other from her mouth to pick up her bottle of wine. After throwing the boxes away and setting her wine on its side in her refrigerator, she went back to her living room, planning on shutting off the light; but her attention went again to the chair sitting innocently by a window.

Without really making a conscious thought to do so, she walked back to the piece of furniture and ran her hand over the seat that was now room temperature, smiling as she remembered again she had "won" it and at how silly she had been thinking there had been a spirit of a figure there.

"No more wine before supper for me.."

**********************************************************************************

Its strange really, how one suddenly develops a disorder they never had before. She had never been a sleep walker, never and yet she had apparently started that very evening. She went to bed, she knew she did and had fallen asleep after restlessly tossing and turning for over an hour and now here she was standing in front of a gate, a huge mansion just beyond it and a man telling her she couldn't be there as politely as he could while being athoritive at the same time.

She had "woke up" to the man asking her what she was doing there and after a moment of her expression clearly showing her confusion and shivering in the cold as she was barefoot and in her night gown, a fact which made her blush; the man had realized she had sleep walked there and was now trying to get her to go home.

She looked around, finding the place looked familiar, but unable to place it. Maybe because it was night, maybe it was because she only glanced at it in passing, but it was familiar.

"Umm...if I may..what is this place? I need to know where I am before I can make my way back."

The man looked as if he was going to argue, which made Seras roll her eyes mentally.

"Sir, I'm Officer Seras Victoria of the London Police Force, look me up in your tablet or something if you don't believe me. I understand that you are trying to uphold security and all, but surely you understand, that without knowing where I am, the street, I'll not know which side of town I'm on and how to return to my apartment. Have someone escort me if you wish, I'll even give you my address, but I need to at least know the street or a landmark to help me if I return home alone."

After another moment of silence, the man probably thinking over what she said, he finally realized she was right and with a sigh, told her what she needed to know.

Hellsing Manor.

No wonder she had thought the place looked familiar, she glared at the building as she drove by it every day, but the place looked different at night, looked more intimidating, more ominous, but she wasn't anymore afraid of that woman in the night than she was in the day. She didn't do as she usually did though as the guard was still staring at her so she gave a falsely warm smile.

"Thank you, that means I'm on forty-second street right?"

The guard nodded, and Seras thanked him once again before turning around and walking back toward her apartment, the cold pavement and rocks stinging her feet, shivering the whole way and never seeing the scarlet eyes following her from the shadows.


	4. The Stranger

As the rocks and the cold pavement which had cooled when the night fell stung her feet, her entire body was tense. She had the unmistakable feeling she was being watched and when feeling such, her defenses shot into high gear. She had spent way too much time in the police academy, in the force itself, bringing in psychos, and learning just how depraved people could be to not be aware when something was off around her.

Her steps became slightly more hurried as she walked, gaining her speed slowly so that whoever was watching her wouldn't be as likely to notice the change in pace. She had no weapon as she was in her nightgown and her gun safely stashed in her apartment and hung where she always put it so if there was a confrontation she would have no choice, but to rely only on her own skills.

After what felt like forever, but was nothing more than an hour and a half, she finally made it to her apartment, the door unlocked as she had used the door when sleep walking, but at the reminder, she shivered and her hand hesitated on the doorknob. The door unlocked to the home of an officer, any crook with a thirst for revenge wouldn't be able to resist that temptation. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and as quietly as she could before slowly turning the knob, flinching when it made a soft 'click'. She mentally cursed the latch which had created the noise when it retracted from the catch in the door, but after a tense moment passed, slowly pushed the door open inch by inch until she could peer inside. She peeked her head around the door, looking behind it, as carefully as she could and then into the den area, her eyes scanning the darkness carefully, but seen nothing.

However, she wasn't satisfied with only that, and her body still having the tenseness did nothing to ease her suspicion. After searching carefully in the den, she took a cautious step through the doorway, slowly closing the door behind her and locking it, flinching again when the lock clicked into place, fear and anticipation making her heart drum harshly in her chest. She took a deep breath, pressing her back tight against the wall as her sharp gaze continued the search, looking on the floors, in corners, behind and under things that could be hiding places, but found nothing. And yet, she was still tense.

She sighed as she re-entered the den after going through her apartment a second time with the lights on, more than exhausted now and yet too wired to sleep. She groaned as she pushed a hand through her hair in exasperation at herself. First hallucinations, next she freaked out over smoke in the kitchen and nearly burned the entire apartment building down, then she sleep walked to Hellsing Manor, and now she searched her own apartment in the middle of the night, to the wee hours of morning because of paranoia.

"I need time off, that's all there is to it."

She sighed once more as she flopped down into a chair, groaning when her legs throbbed from how long she had been walking, the soles of her still bare feet dirty and aching from the cold pavement and the sharp rocks on the road, making her wince before she gave a chuckle with no humor.

"Amazing, how even the simplest task such as walking home can suddenly seem like the greatest victory.."

And it did, the trek from Hellsing Manor to her apartment had been full of tenseness in her back, which still had not vanished and remained the same, her heart still squeezing in slight fear and anticipation as if it knew something she didn't. Her blue eyes again scanned around her as she pushed her blonde locks out of her eyes' path, but she jumped, when an odd feeling of warmth rose up around her from beneath her. She gasped and looked down quickly before her eyes widened in surprise. When had she sat in the chair she had bought from the auction? Was she really so out of it, that she hadn't realized where she was going?

The chair beneath her bottom heated up even more as she sat there questioning herself until it began feeling unbearable hot and even as she tried to move, she found she couldn't. That wasn't the worse part. Black smoke, giving off no smell and yet so thick she couldn't see beyond it began to surround her as she attempted to scream, but her voice didn't come forth. She frantically began wishing to wake up, for it had to be a nightmare, it had to be! Nothing like this ever happened, especially not to her and even though she was a firm believer of the supernatural there were limits!

Soon the heat combined with the smoke began to sting her eyes, so she squeezed them tightly shut, her teeth gritted beneath her closed lips against the searing heat against her skin.. Just as quickly as it came, the excrutiating burning stopped, no slowly dying down, it just vanished, but she didn't open her eyes. Would she be dead? Would she be awake and find that everything had been a dream? Would she have dreamed her whole life as an officer and find herself locked in a padded white room? She snorted at her last question, finding it highly idiotic even for her, but even as unwilling as she still was to open her eyes, they snapped open when hearing the sound of rustling paper, like someone writing, or turning a page and locked instantly with a man whose eyes were as red as blood, surrounded by a pale face and sharp, but perfect features. Hair as black as tar, but looking as soft as a rose petal framed that face before falling over broad shoulders and down the stranger's back which was clad in a long and puffy white shirt, open at the chest and exposing even more pale skin. Long legs crossed and encased in tight black pants, and black riding boots adorning his feet.

Her mouth popped open in shock at seeing him, not believing what she was seeing, she recognized him, she didn't know how, or from where, but she did. How was that even possible? Was she really wasting time questioning herself when she should be demanding to know how and why he was in her house? Her mouth closed for a moment, twisting in self disgust, brows crinkling in disapproval before she looked back up to his gaze boldly, only to be met with angry and narrow eyes.

"Who are you and why are you in my castle?!"

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TBC.....

Disclaimer: -Hides from lawyers yelling and running after her before finally waving a white flag.- Ok, ok, I give! I don't own em! Hellsing and all of its characters belong to the brilliant creator of them Kouta Hirano and the Count is the property of one genius named Bram Stoker. -Pouts.- Happy now? -Takes paper from one of the many lawyers and looks over it, before eyes widen.- Is this the fine or my phone number?!

Note from the Author:

Dreamer: Alright guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter, it took me hours to write and though there's not much to show for it, I gave it my best and am actually proud of it.

Alucard: -Snorts.- Only proud of it because your brain has been barren.

Dreamer: Hey so not true!

Seras: -Whispers.- It totally is.

Dreamer: Need I remind you, I can erase you?

Seras and Alucard: -Grins.- But you won't.

Dreamer: Why wouldn't I?

Seras and Alucard: -Points at glaring Hellsing fans.-

Dreamer: -Cowers.- Ok, ok, I won't! -Looks at everyone.- To save my head, I must run for now, but please leave a review, suggestions are welcome. Bye for now! -Runs away.-


	5. Real or Hallucination

Seras brows crinkled again. What had he just said? His castle? Was he blind or stupid? Obviously he was in her house! She opened her mouth to tell him just that, but her voice chose that moment to abandon her yet again, making her blink in shock when no sound came forth. Panic struck her hard as a hand went to her throat in alarm. Why couldn't she speak? Why did this keep happening?! From across the room, the stranger became even angrier and stood abruptly, making Seras' gaze snap from where she'd been staring at the floor and back to his eyes, her own blue eyes wide as she continued to try to speak without results. The stranger moved quickly, too quick for her to see, invading her personal space, his hands holding tight to the arms of the chair, making the wood groan under his grip, and making Seras glad her arms were in her lap.

The stranger, glared fire into her wide eyes, hands gripping the wood on the arms of the chair tighter, making the wood groan again. His hot breath, assaulted her face, making her aware of just how close they were to each other and in spite of herself she blushed and jerked back, her head banging hard against the wall behind her. She winced, her hand instantly going up to the painful spot and rubbing it delicately, trying to soothe the pain which only stung worse with her efforts. A cold hand taking her wrist in a tight grip, made her wince again and look back to the stranger, whose gaze was even more fiery if at all possible as he jerked her arm down, the movement making her head smack into the wall again, making her wince yet again, eyes squeezing shut momentarily against the pain.

"I will not ask you again!"

Seras opened her eyes again, glaring back at the man before her now, did he have to let her hurt herself over such a stupid question?! Obviously it was HER house and HE was the intruder, she should be the one demanding answers from him, or better yet, throw his ass out! Maybe he was insane! Her eyes widened at the very real possibility and with what was going on, it seemed he was. 

Oh perfect, first hallucinations, my house almost burning down, sleep walking, paranoia, and more hallucinating, now I'm dealing with a nut case. Why the hell not? May as well throw in a cherry to complete the cake!

She squirmed underneath his gaze, slightly twisting her wrist back and forth to test his grip, but the action caused his hold to tighten, making a purple circle begin forming on her pale skin. She hissed in pain and at first thought that she could speak thanks to making the sound, but trying to talk again and failing killed that hope pretty quickly.

Great just frikkin, great! If the boys back at the force heard that not only had an intruder somehow broken in her house, but she had been busy hallucinating to realize it until he was sitting across from her they would never let her live it down.

"What are you going on about?! What force?! You are the intruder in MY home!"

She blinked in shock. Had she said that aloud? She was fairly certain she hadn't, as she couldn't speak and this was confirmed as she tried again and no sound came out..and yet he had heard her..how? Maybe she had mouthed the words unconsciously. Wait! He was still saying she was the intruder?! He really was nuts! She glared ice at him, his glare burning ever more hot and dangerous as she intentionally mouthed words to him this time.

'What the hell are you talking about?! Are you a moron?! You're the one in MY house and the last time I checked I had no tall, dark, idiot on my lease!'

It seemed he could read lips, for his eyes turned all the more furious and dangerous, his grip again tightening, but not around her wrist, around the arm of her chair, making her gasp. If he kept it up he would break the arm of it.

'Cool down macho man, that's an antique you're breaking!'

"Antique? Lady clearly it is you who is mad."

Seras' brows furrowed in confusion as well as anger, feeling quite insulted. How dare he?! He intruded in her home and claimed it was his house and she was the insane one?! With her free hand she indicated around her, her eyes leaving his and following her hand, or would have, but looking around, the scene was a strange one..

Since when did her apartment have black stone walls, a fireplace? Holy cow since when did she have a library? Since when did she have a rich oak desk..? Sudden realization made her eyes wider than ever, a gasp leaving her lips as she grasped the truth.

"Its...not my house.."

So shocked was she, she didn't realize she had finally spoken aloud, and barely registered the hand gripping her wrist so tightly had slacked off until her abused wrist fell limply into her lap. She was stunned to say the least. How had she gotten here? Had she sleep walked again? If she had, had she carried her chair with her? How on earth did she make it past this guy without notice if that was the case? Didn't this guy have a foreign accent? Was she even still in London? Was she asleep? Having a nightmare? Another hallucination?

Yes! That must be it!

But if it was, how had she felt the pain in her head and wrist?

"Are you done with your inner monologue?" 

Seras' eyes snapped back to the stranger's who was giving her a look that was a mixture between anger and amusment and Seras glared at him, completely missing the fact he had basically just told her he had heard her thoughts.

"I don't know ok? I don't even know if this is real or not!"

The man, arched a brow at her, clearly not following her, making her sigh.

"I don't know if I'm really here, if you're real, if I'm dreaming, going nuts, or what ok? All I know is I was sitting in this chair I bought at the auction yesterday at Carfax Abbey and the next thing I know, I'm surrounded by smoke and here ok? I can't give you anymore answer than that, because I honestly don't know!"

The man had listened to every word, grinning the whole time until the name Carfax Abbey came up, then the grin was wiped away like an eraser on a dry erase board. His reaction to the name had Seras baffled, a itching suspicion or rather thought had her calling herself seven kinds of insane for even considering that this man could be HIM of all people. There was no way, it wasn't possible, for it to be him, for her to be sitting here with him so close she would have had to travel back in time, but time travel was impossible... Much less the idea of time travel by a chair, the very idea was ludicrous and yet, he was giving her a questioning look as if he could hear every thought she had and was silently asking her to elaborate... No it wasn't possible! It wasn't...and yet she couldn't stop herself from asking..

"Who are you? Where am I?"

The man grinned at her, showing off two canines much too long and sharp to be those which belonged to a human, his red eyes growing fiery again, but this time with what looked like a dark amusement before he answered in a heavily accented voice.

"You are in Transylvania, in my castle. As for who I am, I have many names, Alucard, Vlad Tepes, Vladimir Dracul, but most know me simply as Dracula."

Seras blinked again, once, twice, before a soft sound escaped her lips, making her body quake and growing a little louder with each passing second as her vision became fogged. From what felt like a vast distance she could see him giving her a very confused and irritated expression and she realized why... she was laughing, hysterically laughing and she couldn't stop even as she tried to..

"D..." She laughed harder. "Dra.." Her sides were beginning to hurt. "Dracula..." She laughed harder and harder, until they stopped abruptly and she was left feeling and looking dazed before her entire world went black..

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Dreamer: Oh. My. RA! Finally! 

Seras: -Glares at Dreamer.- What the hell did you do to me?!

Dreamer: -Zips lips.-

Seras: -Mumbles about stubborn authors.-

Alucard: Is my name really that funny?

Dreamer: -Unzips lips and pats his shoulder.- She wasn't laughing at your name count, she was hysterical. She was at her limit of what she could take.

Seras: -Glares at Dreamer again.- Oh sure, tell him, but not me.

Dreamer: -Winks at Seras then smiles to all readers.- Please review, suggestions are welcome.


	6. Reality

The count growled when the young woman hysterically laughed her way right into a fainting spell, it being obvious that she was a she by her scent and by the breasts he could see when he looked down and what a marvelous set they were. Hey, he was still a man, undead or not and what man didn't appreciate a nice shall we say..package?

Generous package aside however, this woman had truly baffled and infuriated him. She uses magics to enter his home and then dares call him the trespasser and insane?! Still though he couldn't really blame the girl for thinking he was the intruder if what he had seen from her memories was true and if it wasn't then the magic she used to get there may have done something to her memory.

Either way I can't leave her here.

He picked her up, detaching his fingers from the chair that the young woman not being in her right mind thought was an antique and gingerly picked her up bridal style, surprising himself at how gently he was treating her compared to before he was ready to literally rip her blond head from her shoulders, but he pushed that observation aside and carried her from the room, willing the candles and fire to go out as he used his magic to close the door behind him.

As he made his way to the stairs he looked down at her once again. She was an odd one of that he was sure, such a short hair style for a woman and her hair unkempt nothing like the ladies he was familiar with seeing. Indeed even the women in the small Romanian village just down the mountain pass was more fussy over their looks, their hair always brushed out and put up with care or hanging like silk over their shoulders and down their backs. The women would be sure to never leave their beds without a nightcoat and nightly footwear either and yet here this woman was in his castle in the middle of the night, in his castle, in nothing, but her underwear, her feet dirty and scratched up as if she had trekked for miles barefooted up the mountain.

So long as he was on the subject of how strange this woman was, what on earth was her reaction to his name? He had seen grown men tremble with fright just at the mention of his name, soil their breeches if his shadow passed too closely by them, and some even fall dead at his feet, quite literally scared to death of him. The women were no better, they would shriek for hours even after he was long gone, sleep with their rosaries still clutched tight in their fists, some even killed themselves as he approached, either jumping from high area they happened to be or stabbing themselves, choosing to die of their own means, but for someone to laugh hysterically before passing out and a woman doing so no less...that was a new one and an occurrence that infuriated him as at the same time intrigued him.

There was something strange about her indeed, other than her looks and her reaction to him, her scent...it wasn't given to her by anything local and while he could smell her natural scent, he also caught the smell of harsh chemicals and scented soaps, scented soaps being something that only those with great finances could afford and she clearly was not fortunate enough to have such or her father, her court, her husband would be appaled at how she looked...

Husband...

He bent down, taking a sniff of her before pulling back again with a look of pure shock on his features. She was untouched! An innocent still yet, a virgin! But...

He returned his eyes to her unconscious features where as before they had watched where he was walking. In spite of how strangely she held herself, she was a lovely girl, pleasing to the eye, how could any man with any manner of sense not have claimed her for his own yet? Her waspish tongue couldn't possibly be the only reason, such a thing could be tamed in a woman given the right man was holding the reins...perhaps that was it, the right man hadn't come along yet to tame her and make her submit..though judging by her scent, not many had tried. 

He picked up the scent of males who had been near her yes, but none of them held the scent of testosterone lust, neither did she bear the scent of the alluring musk he had smelled on other women....this one it seemed was a truly untouched gem, a rarity even now in his time.

As he looked down at her, he found himself strangely captivated by her, in spite of being unconscious instead of peacefully dreaming, she looked as if she slept without a care in the world, her features smoothed out now where as before her face had been marred with lines of stress and anger. Her skin looked so smooth and soft, pale, so pale in fact it almost reminded him of his own, but it suited her. He recalled now that her eyes while open were the deepest blue, almost violet, beautiful and a color he had never seen before then as he was accustomed to the green of his own when he was human and the ally he hadn't seen in literally ages.

The thought of her admittedly sent a rush of sadness through his entire being, something he was used to feeling when it came to...Ki...Ki....her, but he shook it off and continued on his way, not knowing until then that he had stopped in his tracks.

Now that he was stopped, he looked in surprise at where he was. He was standing in front of one of the many bedroom doors and one of the only ones that was still half way decent for a human to stay in, in short quite a shock to him for regardless of her physical appeal, he had intended on taking her to the dungeon where he would shackle her to the wall.

"Oh well, I'm already here.." he said to himself and pushed the door open with one booted foot.

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She began to come awake slowly, but kept her eyes closed, the pain in her head making them stay shut and squeeze tightly against it, but one of her hands came up from where it lay beside her and gingerly rubbed where the pain was centering from, hissing through her teeth at the immediate sting that rewarded her for the action.

She immediately put her arm back down at the first initial sting, frowning quietly to herself as her arm bounced against a soft surface beneath her, her memory telling her that the last place she'd been was on the chair she'd bought at the auction and she'd passed out right after....

I must have dreamed it all after all....yes, that's it, I dreamed it...

She reasoned quietly with herself, but didn't want to open her eyes, not wanting to admit even to herself that she doubted her own thoughts. She could clearly feel the pain in her head which resulted from it colliding with the wall so many times, her left wrist still throbbed and hurt, sprained most likely from the iron tight grip that Dra....that he had on it before.

But if what had happened before was real...how then was she laying on a bed?

Wouldn't he have locked her up somewhere?

Killed her?

....Impaled her..?

She couldn't really blame him if he had of course, she didn't give much of an explanation as she didn't have one, she had called him insane several times while unknowingly staking a claim on his home until she finally looked around and then she'd laughed in his face, going temporarily insane at the news of who he was....

But it made no difference, it hadn't really happened...

Nope, not happened, she'd probably bumped her head and slung her arm in her sleep and injured herself, the sensations becoming part of the dream she had been having....yes that had to be it...

That's what really...

A soft, but deep laugh off in the far side of the room made her eyes snap open and had her scrambling upright, blue irises wide and startled as they gazed into the darkness of the room, meeting glowing scarlet almost instantly and she scurried in a crab walk across the soft surface of the mattress as the eyes went higher and came closer, meaning he had stood up and was approaching her.

"You fear me now mortal, after being so bold before, you fear me now?" he spoke in an almost purring voice.

He was enjoying her discomfort! That asshole! She stopped where she was on the bed, glaring at the glowing eyes now as she sat indian style and folded her arms defiantly over her chest. Truth be told she wasn't afraid, she just hadn't wanted to believe that time travel...by chair of all things was even possible and to think herself asleep, or just a little on the nutty side was better than admitting it was possible and it had happened.

"Who said anything about fear?!" she bit back.

Good, she had apparently regained her voice now, that meant that her words would have full impact now and if he wanted to read her thoughts as he had back in his library then she would give him her thoughts and her words all rolled into one. He wanted to play? Well she'd make sure he struck out, she was one woman that wasn't going to be just another victim!

She grinned icily at him as he finally came to a stop, his form finally shown by the silvery beams of the moon that showed through the window, but she wasn't perturbed by the answering grin on his face showing those long and lethal fangs of his as the blood red irises glinted darkly at her.

"You are most certainly a feisty one, strong in spirit when faced against danger where as men and women both have fallen just at the sight of me before. That is quite a feat in and of itself police girl," he spoke softly, and though it seemed as if it were praise, she didn't dare let her defenses down as it could be a taunt, a compliment specifically designed to make her guard crumble.

"My father didn't raise a weakling," she replied calmly, though her eyes told the unspoken story, that she wasn't going down without a fight. He was good, he'd lived for ages if the legends were true, perfected how to get to his "prey", but he would have to pull out all of his stops to get to her and in the end....well they would see who was left standing.

Dracula was no longer heard of in her time other than being a work of fiction, a legend of a historic figure given more fame by the author Bram Stoker after all, so he'd have had to go down somehow, perhaps she was the reason.

It seemed he had heard her thoughts when his grin dropped and his eyes lost their luster, the red pools gazing down at her in question now, his body very obviously more tense now.

"A work of fiction?" he asked, confirming her thoughts and making her grin grow.

"That's right vampy, some people haven't even heard of you where I come from. You don't exist and never did," she told him, her grin growing and becoming more cold as she watched his features go absolutely still. "Oh, wait. Yes you do exist in my world," she corrected herself, grinning inwardly when what could be hope flashed on his features for all of a second. "As a legendary historic figure, Vladimir Dracul, the one who inspired Bram Stoker's literary fictional classic, Dracula."

"This is going to sound strange coming from me, but retract the fangs police girl," he said softly, sounding almost forlorn.

She actually blinked at that and her features relaxed, but even as she straightened her posture, she kept a close watch on him and her form remained stiff, ready to strike if need be and she stiffened all the more when he sat on the end of the mattress, farthest from her.

"You speak of what seems to be another world or another time and your appearance clearly states you are not of this era or world. Where do you come from and how is it you came to be here?"

She fixed him with a skeptical look at that, her eyes narrowing when he tilted his head, taking on the gesture of a man patiently waiting for the answer to his question. She didn't trust him.

Why this sudden interest in where or when she came from?

Had she hit a sore spot when she told him he hadn't made it to her time?

And just why the hell was she feeling guilty all of a sudden about telling him and getting pleasure just moments ago from seeing his reaction?

....Either way, it didn't seem she was going anywhere anytime soon. And what harm would it do to tell him what he wanted to know? And so with a sigh she gave in, but kept watching him carefully, her body still tense.

"Where I come from, the year is two thousand three...A.D." she added the last part in case he didn't completely grasp what she was saying and she didn't notice as her lips gave a small twitch in what could have been the beginnings of a sympathetic smile as she continued. "This is my world, the same as yours, just a different time...way different... As for how I got here, I know it may sound crazy, but I think it was that chair..."

She trailed off there, watching his features careful and so caught the stirrings of disbelief on his features, but whether it was because he didn't believe her or he was surprised, she wasn't sure.

"You got here with my chair?" he asked with a chuckle.

Jerk.

"Hey, I told you it seemed crazy! But magic and the like doesn't exist where I come from, not real magic anyway, only tricks to make it seem there is. I am....was..an ordinary woman on the London, England Police Force and just yesterday I bought that same chair from the old Carfax Abbey just like I told you..." she said, catching the same reaction she had before when she'd first spoken the name to him. "I've never had experiences with hallucinations, sleep walking, or...this before I got that chair...but almost as soon as I got it to my apartment weird things started happening....

"I saw a black smoke like figure on it while I was talking to my boss on the phone and it came toward me only to disappear when I looked away...then when I went to bed, I woke up later to find myself standing in front of Hellsing Manor barefoot and in my nightgown...and after feeling like I was being watched on the whole way home, I sat in the chair without realizing I was and next thing I know, I feel like I'm burning alive and POOF I'm sitting there in your library..." she panted as she finished realizing that at some point her explanation had turned into a tirade.

The count sat there staring at her and a pressure in her head told her he was reading her thoughts, probably to see if she was telling the truth or not, but as the minutes ticked by and the silence stretched on she got more and more irritated. He was more aware of magic and stuff than she was right? So the least he could do was give her some kind of explanation!

The vampire in question frowned at her then, making her again realize that he had read her thoughts for a certainty.

"I do not have to read your thoughts to hear that, Seras Victoria, you think too loudly. However, after looking into your mind and assessing that you are indeed telling the truth, I can not give you an explanation, for I do not have one as to how the chair has gotten you here. However, the "hallucinations" as you call them and the sleep walking are all signs of a vampire who had gotten into your mind and controlled what you seen or did." 

She stiffened once again at the news, not noticing she had relaxed at some point. That was just freaking perfect, could the day..er...night..get any freaking better? She thought the cherry topper was the stand off she'd had with the count just a short time ago...but nope, this had to be it. Hallucinations, sleep walking, time travel by chair, finding out vampires do indeed exist....yep, the cherry topper was definitely in spite of all of that, that it had all been the work of another vampire!

Was the chair tied to all of it?

Was that why Integra Hellsing was trying so hard to outbid her?

"Damn it!" Seras groaned and momentarily forgetting where and with whom she was, fell back against the bed.

"You should be more mindful the offers you make my dear," the count's dark voice purred much closer now than before.

"Its not an offer," she replied tiredly, suddenly too sleepy to sit back up. "Get out of my head.." she protested, thinking the sudden fatigue she was feeling was his doing. In the book, that had been one of his favorite tricks.

"It is not my doing Seras Victoria, but perhaps on the morrow you will tell me more? Perhaps even why you are still untouched.." he whispered into her ear, making her drowsily wonder when her eyes had closed as fatigued pulled her deeper and deeper into the depths of slumber. 

"Go fuc-" 

She never got to finish her sentence as sleep completely claimed her mind, her body completely relaxing as her dreams whisked her away from her troubles of consciousness, but the count caught the message loud and clear and straightened back up, looking down at her with a grin.

"A feisty one indeed, you are a rare one miss Victoria. I should think, I would like to get to know you..." 

*****************************************************************************

Dreamer: Finally, the update is done, the demand for this chapter on ff.net has been so immense it really put the pressure on to get it done.

Alucard: -Purrs at Seras.- My little kitten has fangs after all.

Seras: Shove it master!

Dreamer: -Sweat drops.- You can feel the love in here.

Alucard and Seras: -Glares at authoress.- Stop making us wait so long!

Dreamer: O_O

Seras: When will we get to the good stuff?

Dreamer: This isn't good stuff?

Alucard: No the good stuff is the hot, steamy, *censor.* -Blinks.- What the *censor*

Seras: Master!

Both: -Starts arguing.-

Dreamer: Well, since they seem to be occupied, I'll do this for once~ ^^ I truly hope you liked this chapter everyone, now you know what to do, please review~

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Disclaimer: I don't own, Alucard, Seras, Hellsing, Integra *barf* or any other characters of Hellsing that may show up, they belong to Kouta Hirano and Dracula belongs to one mister Bram Stoker.


	7. The Escape

Seras slept soundly through the rest of the night as the Count watched her dream on blissfully unaware to the world around her and as he watched her chest rise and fall softly with every breath she took the harder it got not to lean down and sample a bit of the virgin blood he could easily smell. But he now knew that she had been speaking the truth when she said she had time traveled by his chair. 

However that was an enigma in and of itself, in all of his years he had never thought time travel to be more than a fictional occurrence. But then again he was a vampire and thought to be fiction in her era apparently so who was he to scoff at time travel? What other explanation was there anyway? He had been alone in his study and suddenly a prickle of power entered the air and there she was across from him just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. 

There had been his first theory of her being mad for her saying he was intruding in her home, but the girl had unknowingly time traveled...and that was exactly what it was, he was sure of it now. There was no way she could have even gotten on the mountain pass without him knowing about it much less into the castle itself. He would have seen her come in and plop down in his chair too and while that power he had felt could have assisted her in that, she was human and he sensed no magic whatsoever in her.

Her thoughts didn't lie either, he had delved deeper than the surface to catch the truth and in doing so had discovered the identity of her boss. Found that she was following in her father's footsteps to be an officer of the law. She lived alone and lonely in a small, one bedroom flat. She had no friends to speak of, only men on the force who teased her for being the only female there and a boss that didn't appreciate her.

His thoughts carried along much that same track until dawn began to break and he left her there in that bedroom to retreat to his coffin for the day, but not before he locked her in the room she was sleeping in. The last thing he needed was for her to get back to her time and blab about what she'd seen. 

*************************************************

Seras woke up slowly to the feeling of warm sunlight on her face and not quite remembering where she was for a moment stretched with a happy sigh. She had a dreamless sleep the night before, nightmares not plaguing her for once. And she wasn't waking in front of Hellsing manor this time she knew as the birds she heard were clearly outside and there was no one telling her she had to go.

This was good, she was rested and ready for the coming night shift she would be pulling... Wait.. Hellsing?!

With a gasp all the things that had happened before came back to her in a rush. The chair she outbid Integra for. The hallucinations that apparently were a play at illusion from another vampire if what the Count said was true. The sleep walking, time travel, and... Oh shit she was still in his castle wasn't she?! What if he was still watching her and listening to her thoughts now in amusement like before? 

Her eyes snapped open at that and she jumped up from the bed, her heart racing as she searched the room with wide blue eyes. But as she searched another fear took hold and she smacked a hand on the side of her neck, feeling for a bite mark or wound where he could have taken her blood from, but found none. However she wasn't satisfied and looked to her wrists, again nothing...well nothing, but a bruise on one wrist where he had such a strong grip before...then he hadn't bitten her?

But just because he hadn't yet didn't mean that he wouldn't and she had to get home before night fall or she'd be late for her shift. If she was late then they would call, if they called and she didn't answer there would an officer coming to her home. If an officer came to her apartment and she didn't answer the door though the lights were on, they would bust down the door and if that happened and oh say her body was sitting lifeless in that blasted chair then they would think her dead if she didn't have a pulse then they'd take her to the morgue and the next time she woke up could be six feet underground in a casket. 

It was a good theory too...it could have just been her spirit transferred to the past and her body left behind, that could have been the burning feeling before, her soul being ripped from her body and into this time. After all wasn't that thing she seen before a specter? It certainly looked like one. She had to get back! Who knew how long her body could survive without its spirit? And what if time passed differently in the two places? What if she'd already been "dead" for days? And she wasn't going to get anything done by simply panicking about it, she had to get moving. The castle was huge she could imagine and it would take her a bit to find the blasted study she appeared in and even longer if the Count woke up and caught her before she could get home.

So panic setting in, she raced across the room and would have thrown the door open, only to find it locked. Of course the bloody jerk would lock the door! Wouldn't want her "snooping about" and finding his resting place. Well lucky for him that wasn't her intention and was in fact the farthest this from her actual goals. And lucky for her, she had spent enough time as a rebellious teen to pick a lock...she needed something metal and small, but strong. Her blue eyes quickly scanned the room, looking for anything useful and praying the whole while that the vampire was too deep in his sleep to hear her thoughts. He had said earlier he didn't need to read her thoughts because she thought loudly and she knew that her thoughts had to be pretty loud right now. 

Thankfully thirty minutes later, she'd found a letter opener, not her instrument of choice exactly, but it would work well enough. Another thirty minutes of fiddling with the old lock, she was finally free and opened the door quickly after psyching herself up to do it only to be met with a huge hall filled with creepy looking portraits that all seemed to stare into her soul with their hard gazes. Jeez talk about the creeper scale...dark hall, plus portraits with stone cold and staring eyes equal creeper scale off the charts and very freaked out Seras. And it took quite a bit to scare her too, she was an officer of the law.. It had to be the place that she knew she was making her so jumpy..yeah..

But whatever the case was, she squealed in startled fright when she suddenly heard a thump behind her she was running like hell itself was on her heels and thinking it was the Count, it may as well have been hell. She may have been a fan of his her whole life, but she knew what he was capable of and she didn't want to stand around to see if his patience lasted through her trying to escape. If she'd simply looked behind her she would have seen that the "thump" had merely been a book falling from a table and onto the floor caused by her scrambling movements to get the letter opener before.

Ten minutes of aimless running later however, she finally stopped knowing that he could have caught her the minute she went to take off and would have made no noise in coming after her at that...unless he loved toying with his "prey" that is. But she'd heard no mocking laughter, no encroaching shadows had made an appearance... She'd been startled and sent running by something inane she now knew..

"Good God, get it together, Seras. You're an officer of the law, act like it and keep a cool head," she told herself, this was no time to panic. There was no sight of the vampire being around or coming anytime soon at that and if she ran about in a panic then she could miss the study completely and just get herself lost or as the Count may have thought, find him. Completely on accident of course, but the chances of him believing that were very slim.

She took a calming breath, breathing in deeply and slowly exhaling through her nose, ignoring the musky smell in the air as best as she could, but all the same the dust in the air caused her to sneeze where she'd kicked it up on her frightened flight through the halls.

"Don't suppose you'd tell me which way the study is?" she asked, looking up at one of the portraits that merely stared with the cold eyes of all the others. "No, I guess not," she added with a shrug then rolled her eyes at herself.

Yeah, good way to prove your sanity, talk to a picture. The only thing she could rely on was her instincts at this point, there was no one to point her the right way and she only had the daylight hours to get to the study, in the chair, and back home..maybe even less if her theory about the two places having different times was correct. But which way...?

"I'm going to need a vacation after this...a long one, and Romania is out of the question.." she told herself and decided to go the way she had been running, if she felt she was descending into the deeper levels of the castle where the Count undoubtedly was then she'd just turn around and go the other way. Hopefully she wouldn't run into the three brides mentioned in the book... Nah, they'd be asleep too.... Hopefully.

As she walked, she got more and more tense, every little sound of the wind outside whistling through the old stone of the castle or a howling wolf making her nearly jump out of her skin and she prayed that the wolves weren't somehow aware of her being awake and trying to get out of there and if they did, that they weren't telling the Count about it. It was implied in movies and the book that he understood them. Wasn't his familiar some kind of wolf like thing? She really needed to stop thinking about him, every little thing would make her think it was him again if she didn't. Once she was back home and the chair in a place it couldn't be used by him to come after her, she would muse on it until she went to work...assuming she didn't have to dig herself out of a hole in the ground that is..

Okay, that train of thought was way too morbid and doing nothing to help her frayed nerves, if that was what she woke up to then she would cross that bridge when she got to it, but for now she needed to stop with the "what if's" and focus. But try as she might to get her mind on other things, it just kept taking her down more and more morbid paths until she was wondering if she would be the next yard decoration for the Count. Which had her nerves so frayed that she was back to squeaking with every sound she heard. 

But wait, this was stupid, she was an officer of the law. Hadn't she just reminded herself of that minutes ago? And now here she was walking in a huge, dark hall, doors on either side, in the chilly air... Was it this cold a minute ago..? What was that sound...?

She had to strain her ears, to catch it, but that was unmistakable. She had spent enough time in the force to know it. Paws and claws hitting the ground in the run....coming toward her! And the way the wind was blowing as if from the hall itself now sent her scent right to the dog, wolf, what ever it was coming after her. 

'You fool, RUN!'

She quickly obeyed her mind's frantic demand and once again she was in a fully panicked sprint and this time, she was sure that hell was on her heels and even more so when hearing a noticeable growl somewhere behind her as well as faster paw falls against the stone of the floors. It knew she was running! What kind of animal was it?? Or was it an animal at all?! Could it be his familiar?

"'Turn around police girl and return to the room I gave you and I will call him off.'" 

Oh no he was awake! So he had sent his familiar after her. No way in hell was she turning around so that thing could get her! What if it suddenly decided to disobey? She had more chance continuing to run. Get to the study, get home, now! 

"'Turn around! NOW!'"

Oh no, now he was mad! But she was close to home now, she could feel it, just a little further. The beast coming after her wouldn't catch her before she made it, she was determined. Just a little... There! She recognized the door leading to the study and dashed to it, but upon her discovery came an enraged roar from deep below her feet and behind her, making the stones rumble and making it hard to stay on her feet. 

He was pissed now, she had no choice, but to get back and get to safety. No one in the force would believe her even if she told them, but at least at home she could arm herself if she couldn't get that blasted chair somewhere he couldn't follow her! And she had to get there quickly, the running paws were gaining ground fast! And she was sure that the Count would be showing up any minute, sunlight or not. 

The door was closer, so were the paws...closer.... Closer!

But as if confirming her thoughts, shadows began to move abnormally in a corner, making her again squeal in fright, but she finally made it to the door, threw it open and slammed it shut behind her, catching sight of eight, fiery red, enraged eyes in a big black furred head, then a loud thump as the dog like creature landed against it. 

But she wasn't stupid and knew that doors wouldn't keep out the vampire himself so she quickly searched and found the chair and after spotting it, dashed for it. She had just reached it when she heard the doors thrown open and literally fell into chair, her momentum turning her around as she did to see the enraged Count. He gazed at her with eyes from the set on fire from the deepest pits of hell itself. His black hair looked more like wildly thrashing shadows behind him and as she watched with her erratic heart about to stop on her. Her blue eyes were so wide they looked about to pop out of their sockets and he grinned at her, flashing very sharp fangs, a dark promise of what was coming. 

"Well you made it, but it appears it does not work from this side. What will you do now, police girl?" he half mocked and half growled, his voice the same dark and angry tone. He started toward her, taking his time so she would know what was coming and fear it more as he drew closer. At his side was the eight eyed dog that had been chasing her. "Well?" he asked again, but she couldn't move, much less answer which he laughed mockingly at when he too realized it.

'Come on, chair work. Work damn it. You got me here, take me back.' 

"'It seems the chair is not listening my dear,'" he mocked in her mind.

'Now would be a good time!' 

Panic was making it hard to breathe as he reached her and began to lean down, making her eyes grow even wider if that were even possible and her breathing stop, breath held as if that would save her as one cool hand touched her cheek, his grinning face came closer. He was going to bite her!

"'It has been long since I have had virgin blood.'" 

Wait! No, NO! She was an officer, the daughter of Peter Victoria, best officer known in London, England. Her resolve again strengthened, her panicked features slowly turned back into a scowling glare, blue eyes like ice and her heart now racing with adrenaline she was finally able to move again. Her voice could work again. 

"And you're never getting this virgin's!" she growled in his face, then her unbruised wrist came up and before even he could react she swung her arm around and slugged him in the jaw with a furious yell. Stupid jerk had scared the shit out of her and he was trying to keep her from going home. Just who the hell did he think he was?! She'd show him. She was going home whether he liked it or not and if he tried to stop her again, she had two fists and police experience to back her up. She could tell that she'd surprised him with her punch, but still determined and at the same time realizing she'd just punched the already furious vampire king and done nothing to his hound that was growling at her again she hoped desperately that the chair was done with its rebellion.

"WORK DAMN IT!" she screamed at it and this time, there it was. The fog like, black smoke, the feeling of heat growing stronger and hotter until it felt like she was burning alive. But this time she kept her eyes open and so she saw the Count look at her in shock and saw his mouth make the word "NO!" but she didn't hear it and briefly wondered what he was seeing. Did it look like she felt, like she was burning up? Or was she simply disappearing from view?

Which ever the case, it soon became unbearably hot just like the first time and she had to look away, close her eyes to protect them from the smoke, move even, but she couldn't move more than her eyes and her lungs as she panted in a mix from the fear of before and the sensation around her. But just like before, as quick as it started, it was over.

She didn't want to open her eyes at first, afraid she'd still be in the castle or in a coffin and the stale air didn't help. No heat..stale air..but she was sitting in the chair for sure...and she could feel the soft carpet under her feet. She really hoped that was carpet and really hoped that it was the chair she was sitting in now. Slowly she began cracking open foggy eyes, but hearing a vehicles outside she opened them fully and looked around. 

Never before had those plain white walls and carpet looked so beautiful, that door with dents in it from it banging against the wall in her clumsiness had never been so perfect to her.

She'd made it.

She was home.

And when her cell phone rang, she was immediately out of that blasted chair and grabbing it, smiling when seeing her boss calling. She didn't care what his reasons for calling were, she'd gladly go in tonight and any other night.

"Hello, captain," she answered cheerfully.

"Victoria? Are you alright?"

"Never better sir. Never bet..."

Cold...it was so cold all of a sudden. It couldn't be!

She turned once again wide blue eyes toward the chair.


	8. Just When You Think Its Safe

She turned wide blue eyes toward the chair, but was both relieved and confused to find it empty still yet...but the foreboding presence in the air, the dropped temperature of her flat couldn't be denied and she would have written it off as mere shock...except that shrugging things off had landed her in one bad situation after another recently. 

"Boss, let me call you back...I'm not feeling too well.." she lied and hung up before he could reply, slowly, cautiously making her way toward where her gun and holster were hanging. Just because she couldn't see anything didn't mean it wasn't there. The count had told her the evening prior that the symptoms she named off and her memories spoke of the manipulation of another vampire that she had somehow caught the attention of.. What if that vampire stalking her was the presence she could feel now? 

As if confirming her thoughts, the feeling of being watched suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks, making a thrill of trepidation and caution wash over her even more, but she kept her steps cautious, but light as if she didn't suspect a thing as she walked closer and closer to her gun. The closer she got though, the more scared she began to feel, as if what ever was in her flat and watching her was moving closer to her and about to grab her up at any minute. Her body instinctively tensed at this, goosebumps raising on her skin, and the fine hairs at the back of her neck rising in warning.

Dare she ask..? Had she been safer with the Count? It certainly seemed that way now going by the feeling that was making her steps noticeably stiffer. She probably wouldn't be now if she went back as she'd succeeded in escaping, but before she'd done so.. Even he hadn't scared her like this, even with her mind wandering as it had...sure she'd been frozen with him, but still somehow.. She was more worried about what ever was in the flat with her than she had been about him. Maybe because she was a fan of his...but this...possible vampire was a stranger that she had never heard of most likely. 

She was sure it wasn't the count for sure, he had been too furious to play games with her, if it were him he would just go ahead and punish or kill her instead of wasting his time...besides she was sure she would have seen him at least briefly form in the chair before he could slip past if he'd managed to use it and get to her time. And again he would have just killed her to begin with. 

I do not have to read your thoughts to hear that Seras Victoria. You think too loudly.

She remembered him saying that, so right now could the vampire in her flat hear her thoughts so easily as well. She couldn't take a gamble...it felt as if it was closer now, too close, so she ran for her gun, grabbed it and pointed it in the direction the feeling was coming from. She practically jumped out of her skin seeing a transparent figure there that she only noticed when it moved and came closer though she couldn't contain a startled yelp before she was glaring at it and had her gun safety off, ready to shoot. Would it even work? She didn't know, but she wasn't going down without a fight. 

"If you're going to stalk me don't be a damn coward, show yourself!" she demanded, leveling her gun barrel right at where she thought its heart would be. "These are silver bullets and I'm the best shot on my squad!" she added. 

It was a bluff and a gamble, but she couldn't shoot something she couldn't see and either it had stopped or it was moving from a direction she couldn't see it. Her eyes narrowed though, her arms remaining steady in spite of her fear as she held the gun out, finger on the trigger and ready to fire if she had to, she actually looked more angry than scared. But appearances were deceiving...and she learned that quickly a moment later. 

It finally moved again, but not to reveal itself, her left wrist, the one already bruised was grabbed in a vice like grip. Her hold on her gun instantly loosened, Seras so shocked by the sudden contact. The hand holding her wrist was hard as diamond and cold as the grave then it was squeezing until she dropped the gun completely and cried out softly from the pain shooting through her wrist and arm. Was it trying to break her wrist? It would certainly succeed at this rate! Just when she thought that her bones were about to break though, the thing tossed her aside and she landed on her side on the carpet at the foot of the antique chair. 

That thing. That stupid chair was the start of all this madness! She should have just let Integra have it, let that bitch handle all this stuff. And now look....she was unarmed..probably mere moments away from death. She knew that the invisible thing was coming closer again, she could see the wavering of spots it walked past as it came toward her. But what could she do? Wait! 

"I command you out of my house! You are not welcome here!" she shouted at it, she'd heard and read in vampire folklore that a vampire who's invitation and rights were removed from a home had to leave and could never return unless given permission by the tenant again.

But the answering, mocking laugh that reached her ears told her that, that legend was false, but at least it identified the gender of the vampire, male. The laugh was definitely masculine...but not that of the count...so it wasn't him. 

"Please, leave me alone... What did I do to you?" she asked, but the only answer she got was a kick to her side so rough she knew she would be bruised there and hard enough to make her fall to her stomach. Was she going to get an answer? Probably not. But she wasn't going to go down without a fight either and rolled back onto her back just as another kick was about to be dealt to her. 

But how could she fight an enemy she couldn't see? She'd just have to do her best and even if she went down, she wouldn't be from giving up. So that in mind and giving a determined nod of her head, Seras hunkered into a fighting stance and clenched her fists, her only weapons right now, ignoring the pain in her wrist and side. She would teach this vampire that no one assaults her so freely. She had just bloody punched the frikking King of vampires in the face just for scaring her a little bit. This bastard had done a lot more than that. 

So when it made a move, making a grab for her again, she was ready, she was ready, watching for ripples of movement in the room and found it. She used that to draw her arm back and swing, giving a right hook into what felt like a neck. The vampire seemed surprised that she was able to hit him for what ever concentration he had going for him to maintain the illusion of invisibility, it was suddenly dispelled right then as he stumbled back and held his throat. 

Shaggy red hair was revealed and angry even redder eyes glared at her. He looked as if he was no more than nineteen to twenty years of age, a punk kid who thought that the world owed him something like those run of the mill rebels she brought in all the time. Had someone come in her apartment when she'd sleep walked after all? Was this him? Ah, but she couldn't be fooled by outer appearances, he may look like some ordinary punk, but his invisibility before the red of his eyes and the white gleam of fangs told the truth. 

Still she couldn't help herself as she grinned at him tauntingly as he may have been doing to her when he was invisible. 

"I see you~" she said in a sing song tone and gave an almost playful wink. 

The way she acted, so different from the clear fear she had shown before utterly confused the vampire and it was shown clearly as his eyes got slightly wide and then he glared at her, knowing he was being mocked and taunted by the smallish police woman before him. She'd been so afraid before and now she treated him so differently now that she saw him. Well he would show her that was not to be underestimated! That bitch was going down!

Seras watched the different displays of emotion flickering over the vampire's face as she taunted him. She was treading on dangerous grounds true, but as he began getting angry she figured out he had to be a new fledgling vampire or relatively new as anger came over him and he allowed it to cloud his judgement, making his decisions around it. Perfect...provoking anger in an opponent sometimes was what it took for the fight to turn in her favor. And she a human, needed all the help she could against this vampire. Maybe she could even get him angry enough that he'd forget he was more than human himself. 

Or not.. 

He flew at her, barely missing when she ducked and rolled away then when she stopped, turned and faced him, but while she was about to stand, he proved he was faster and soon had her pinned down onto the floor while she struggled beneath him. 

"Get off me!" she demanded, hissing the words through her teeth. 

"Oh look, the kitten is hissy," he taunted back, grinning down at her. "No, I'm done playing with my food."

"Food"? He was going to bite her and drain her?!

No! No she couldn't let him! She was only in her twenties, just starting to make her departed family proud as well as herself and now a strange vampire was coming in and trying to steal it all away from her?!

"No, get off me! I won't be killed!" she growled back in reply, her struggles renewed and growing even stronger when she could feel breath against her neck and the sharp prick of a fang not quite breaking the skin, but getting close.

Before the red headed vampire could bite and take her blood though he was suddenly grabbed by the back of his shirt and thrown away from the struggling officer. At first he'd thought that the woman was more than she seemed, she had punched him while he was invisible after all, but then he saw...him.

Seras had closed her eyes, prepared to push with all her might against the vampire atop her, but then before she could, she felt the weight leave her completely and heard a crash from the red head crashing into the crease between the ceiling and wall where he'd been thrown. And when she opened her weary blue eyes, they instantly locked onto the reason. There stood Vlad Dracul, the king of vampires himself.

The king simply watched the redhead collect himself for a moment before turning expressionless eyes and face to Seras, offering his hand to help her up...which after much careful debating within herself she accepted and he pulled her to her feet. She steadied herself awkwardly and brushed herself off when her hand was released and watched as the vampires faced off against one another.

The fight was a short one, Vlad of course the winner...but Seras was tired...dog tired although she had already slept quite a bit. It felt as if she hadn't slept a wink...her eyes heavy and burning as she swayed on her feet. Was she being forced to feel this way or was her body just unable to cope with this added stress and decided to make her sleep through it? Either way she found she just didn't care anymore, her eyes slipping closed and her legs giving out from under her, but she never hit the floor. 

Vlad caught the now sleeping Seras easily and once again pulled her into his arms bridal style once he had her steady. He had originally come here with every intention of putting an end to Seras...but then he saw her struggle and fight for her life, he heard her determination, he saw from her memories where she had briefly talked to her boss, but had no intention of saying anything about him. And could he truly blame her for wanting to be home, in her own era? No, no he couldn't.

"Sleep well little one. We have much to speak on when you awaken."


	9. Why Me?

The king watched her sleep, sitting comfortably on the bed at her side while trying to brush away his own fatigue. This irritating spitfire of a woman had broken him from his own sleep when she was making her escape from his castle. But he had to admit she was a very fascinating creature. It had taken a while to figure out just how she had escaped from the room he locked her in, but upon going to it he discovered she'd picked the lock with nothing but a letter opener. He hadn't seen that little item there when he'd brought her in nor when he was leaving for his coffin, but he doubted that he would have thought she'd make her escape with it even if he had noticed it.

Lock picking simply wasn't something that was done in his own era. Even robbers waited until their targets weren't home and then broke in through a busted window or a broken lock. He only knew the name of the skill thanks to reading her thoughts before she'd vanished from the chair. What an interesting skill to have too, one that would be useful to learn if he wanted to make a quiet entrance into a home and couldn't do so with his shadows when crucifixes were over windows or situated on walls. She being a police officer and undoubtedly knowing why he would want such a skill would make her refuse though. As an officer of the law it was her duty to serve and protect. He doubted the fact the people he feasted upon were from another era would be much different for her when it came to the protecting part. Truthfully it would surprise him if she agreed or even hesitated to think about it.

Her nobility as an officer caused his curiosity to take him to why and how she had learned to pick locks in the first place. As an officer why would she need such a skill? If the officers were anything like his own guard and soldiers had been when he was merely a human king, then they would stalk quietly after their target and quietly follow them wherever they were until ready to strike. Or they would ram or kick in doors when attacking once finding a wanted criminal, a criminal that was then brought to him for impalement.

A quick flash of memory of those days brought a grin to his lips as he remembered the terrified expressions on the faces of those convicted of crimes. They all knew what they had coming and even if they had somewhat made their piece with their fate or tried to rebel and seem unaffected, they all began to scream and squirm like pigs when they saw him or saw the pike that would slowly end their lives. None found guilty had ever been spared. From the lowly thief to the murderer or the enemy of his nation and people. Not the Saxons and certainly not the Turks. He had been a terror to the crime doer and enemy and continued to be now as a vampire. And oh~ that first evening he awakened as he was, oh the joy and satisfaction he had when seeing one of the priests who'd damned him die of a heart attack from the sight of him. Oh the sweet taste of revenge when he had drained the executioner's blood from his veins and satiated his thirst, wet his dry throat with that life giving blood.

The grin died a slow death as he recalled Seras telling him both through her thoughts and aloud that he was no longer around in this time. He wouldn't simply stop drinking blood, simply because he couldn't or he'd starve and either go on a mindless rampage or sink into a deep sleep if not death. Did he perhaps get tired of his eternal life and decide to sleep for the rest of time by this era? No, her thoughts had said that someone had been his end. Someone named Hellsing as he recalled. Apparently a descendant of said person had been after the chair which she had purchased which belonged to him and sat in his study in his own home.

That completely blew the theory that he had simply tired of his own existence. Even if she had thought and said those things to taunt him before, it would have made no sense that his chair end up in that Abbey and eventually come to be in her possession. A fact that undoubtedly made it so they met one another the evening prior. If she hadn't been there and hadn't purchased that chair then they wouldn't have met and he had no doubt about that. Did this descendant of Hellsing know this and thus tried to purchase the chair for herself so that no one could use it to find him. If that were so an that person had the intent to warn him of events to come then it would leave them at a very large disadvantage. Perhaps that was why Seras had been able to pass through the barrier of time, to warn him of what was to come.

He had heard from her thoughts before she punched him that she was a fan of his or some such. It had confused him, but he suspected it meant that in some form or fashion that she had a fondness of him. A fondness he had seen briefly light up her eyes when she accepted his hand to help her up before. He had to admit even now that her quick acceptance of his help had surprised him at the time though he hadn't let himself dwell on it in favor of facing off against the punk vampire that had dared try to steal her life from her. She had to have known he'd followed her to kill her himself, he had caught the echo of the thought from the recesses of her mind. But she'd accepted it anyway and then stood with him rather than try to flee again, even watched as he rid the world of the red head vampire by skewering him through the chest with a precise hit of his hand.

She hadn't even flinched when she'd seen this, but had quickly become dazed and wobbly as she stood there with him. He had thought she was about to faint again after seeing what he could do or at least from seeing a vampire vanish in a spray of blood and ash. But he had seen instead that fatigue had gripped her again, making her vision fog and her mind blur as she swayed where she stood until she finally fell asleep on her feet and began to fall. He'd of course caught her before she could and opened every door with his shadows, peeking inside until he'd found her bedroom. His forehead had been burned slightly when he finally found it from the bright sunlight streaming in, but he made his shadows close the odd light blockers and drapes. Thankfully the drapes were heavy and allowed little light into the room so he could sit comfortably on the bed. Comfortably that is until he felt the mattress shift and looked over to Seras.

To his surprise the girl was standing again and making her way out of the room without so much as a a word or a glance toward him. He figured that she was simply heading to the kitchen for something to drink or to the bathroom to relieve her bladder as many people did upon waking and perhaps was still half asleep so hadn't noticed him there just yet. He still stood and followed her quietly, surprised when she bypassed both and made her way into the living room area, not even reacting when she stepped into the blood and ash that hadn't been cleared away. He made his shadows again close the light blockers and drapes so he could continue to follow and watched her pick up a small device he remembered from her earlier memories was a phone. Such wonders of technology this era had, a thing called a phone that allowed one to speak with people more directly than by letter even over far distances. Even as far as other countries.

Even as he watched, she didn't make a call or make any indication she had it in her hand other than wrap her fingers around it and continue on her way- To the front door!

She'd already unlocked it and was turning the door handle by the time he put his hands on her arms and whirled her around to face him. Was she mad?! Going outside in her underwear and without shoes?! Even in this day and age that had to be improper and as an officer she should know better. But getting a good look at her, his outburst died in his throat.

Hazed and unseeing eyes stared blankly at his chest and she made no move to tell she knew he was holding her. Didn't look at his hands, didn't gasp in surprise before when he grabbed her and turned her around. She didn't even look up at him at all, just stared straight ahead as if under a trance. She had called it sleep walking before, but he knew without a doubt it was another vampire causing her to do this. Suddenly he suspected that the sudden bought of fatigue before that she had briefly thought was his doing was in fact the work of another vampire. A vampire who exerted that much power to force one into slumber would need to recoup before entrancing the victim to come to them in the daylight as they were no doubt doing now.

He had never bothered to follow the trail of energy from the victim to the vampire using such tricks before and didn't know how to just yet or he'd do so now and send a powerful mental attack at them. His thoughts were interrupted as he felt her twitch in his hold which had loosened and she turned toward the door again, going to open it. But he firmly closed it again just as it allowed a sliver of light to enter the room from outside. The vampire knew she'd stopped or had been stopped and had increased their hold on her no doubt. He had no choice but to wake her now, the vampire would continue to try if he allowed her to stay asleep.

"Seras!" he said firmly, forcing his way into her mind where sure enough he felt another vampire's influence.

Seras Victoria, wake up!

He felt her mentally react to his presence in her mind, though her body remained still except for the insistent turning of the knob on her door. He felt the other vampire's presence shift as well, as though recognizing him and retreating from the recesses of her mind.

"Listen to my voice and awaken, Seras," he called again, his voice more soothing now, applying his own type of trance. This one was placed both into her mind and outside of it. "Wake up now."

He continued to try to coax her into doing as he willed for several minutes, slowly calling her and breaking through the influence of what was left of the other vampire's hold. How long he had to do this told him that the other vampire was old, possibly near his own age. Ancient. A youngling would have to have focused hard and the influence could easily be overridden by one such as himself easily otherwise, their hold so weak. But this was a tight grip even after the other presence had already departed from her mind, but he was slowly getting through to her. He could feel her mentally, slowly becoming aware and her hand had stopped trying to open the door. That had now hung limply at her side again, her eyes closed again and her body softly swaying in his hold.

"That's it police girl, wake up," he purred softly into her ear, smirking when her head slowly turned in response to his voice. Instead of toward his voice though, she moved it away, exposing her neck to him and making it hard to resist the temptation of what she unknowingly offered him. She was simply a woman asleep and slowly waking, wanting to remain asleep as many humans do when resting so deeply and pleasantly. But to one such as he, turning her head and exposing her neck especially when he was so close to it was like her asking him to bite her. Just as surely as if she had verbally said so herself.

He didn't even notice that his long tongue had slid free of his mouth and tasted the soft, pale skin of her neck where he felt a jumping vein until he felt the unmistakable feeling of being watched. Such a sensation was as good as a death threat to one like himself and he turned his head with a snarl right at where he felt it. A set of scarlet eyes watched them, narrowed at first until he turned his head and then they widened. Vlad had no doubt that they belonged to the one who had been trying to make Seras come to them.

"This girl will not come to you," he promised, a growl in his voice as if daring the other to try to challenge him. "She belongs to me and you will perish by my hand should you attempt to steal her away from her home once more!" He didn't doubt the other vampire could hear him as easily as see him and that was confirmed when the eyes turned to Seras then back to him before closing and vanishing completely.

It seemed that the other vampire completely removed its influence from Seras' mind as he felt the hold vanish before she jerked and gasped awake in his hold. He turned her slowly in his hold, a shadow locking the door back as she panted as if she'd been running and looked around as if trying to get her surroundings and make sense of where she was. The haze cleared from her eyes completely once she looked at him at last and blinked- once, twice, three times- before she seemed to realize who had hold of her. No sooner had that clicked in her mind she was looking around again, really seeing where she was this time and breathed out in relief.

She had thought she'd been back in his castle then? Her relieved and loud thoughts told him he was correct. But to his surprise when she looked back at him it wasn't to demand why he was there or why he had hold of her even as he sensed anger building in her.

"It happened again didn't it?"

**************************************************

She sighed again, this time in frustration when he confirmed her suspicions by nodding. Why else would she be standing in front of her front door, a front door that had been unlocked as she had heard-barely heard-the lock turning on her door when she jolted awake. A dreamless sleep wouldn't have her waking up so suddenly either, only nightmares usually caused that or the sensation that something was wrong. Her mind wanted to go down a path remembering when one such sensation had been right even when she'd tried to go back asleep and forget about it. A time years before now, before she was on the force and still had a living sister and niece. But she forced it aside for now, still feeling the pressure in her head that told her the count was still looking through her mind.

"Hey, if you don't mind, I'd like to keep my private thoughts private!" she snapped and felt the pressure leave immediately after, though guilt hit her right after. "Sorry.. I'm just- Urgh why me?! Why is this happening to me?!" she demanded and moved away from him to begin pacing in her hallway. She didn't even notice that he'd let her go easily and now stood watching her first in amusement and then with an expression she wouldn't have been able to identify even if she had been paying attention. "Why now?! After all this time! with my life finally in order and where I want it to be! Just when I could make them proud and make something of myself! Just when I could like myself again and not hate my own refle-"

Her voice trailed off when she realized that she was getting carried away and had revealed a bit too much. She stopped in her tracks and glanced his way, noticing the interested arch of his brows before she looked away again with a heavy sigh.

"When and why did you not like yourself police girl?" he asked, his voice like dark velvet.

"That's none of your business!" she snapped back, resuming her pacing.

"You can tell me or I can read your thoughts. I thought I had caught a glimpse of fire from your mind before."

She flinched at the word, her steps faltering and coming to a stop as she clenched her fists at her sides. Her eyes hardened and she stared unseeing right at the pile of ash that had been the red-head vampire before. Before his eyes her form began to tremble as her head tilted lower and her gold bangs covered her eyes, but not her scowling mouth. He caught a flash of that fire again, heard screaming of a name "Letti" from her mind, an echo of memory as it began to consume her, but just as quickly as it began it was over as she shook her head.

'STOP!'

Her inner voice screamed the word, not her mind, but her soul. It wasn't directed at him however, it was directed at her own mind.

'Stop, don't make me see it again..'

"Seras.."

He was shaken to the core when she reacted to her name, jolting before slowly turning her gaze toward him. But in her eyes was a shimmer of unshed tears and the look of a broken woman so different from the fiery and determined spitfire he had been seeing.

"Don't.." she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I have already seen a bit-"

"Don't!" she said again, her voice a plea this time before she turned her head away again. "Please just stop.."


	10. Blast From the Past

Vlad lay quietly on the Seras' bed as he listened to her rummaging about from her kitchen. She had offered to let him sleep for a bit in her bedroom. When he had been about to decline she reminded him that she had woken him up when she escaped from his castle. He would have become angry and shown it when he was reminded of it. But her tone had been so distracted and she'd turned her back on him immediately after making her point. It had made him all too aware that she was trying to get her mind off of what ever memory it was that she didn't want to remember. It had only stoked his curiosity though.

Here was a woman who was the epitome of spunk in and out. A fiery soul like that, reduced to a candle flame from what ever event happened that she didn't want to recall. An event that she seemed to take great lengths into keeping from her mind. He remembered a fire and a name that was screamed by her voice. He could tell it was hers too, it was younger and filled with despair, but it was hers all the same. It was clear to him at least that this "Letti" had been very important to her for some reason or another. A friend or perhaps even a family member. But it begged the question of how the fire had started in the first place and how Seras had gotten there.

Her memory showed that the building while destroyed on one half was still standing on another. That told him the blaze hadn't been going for long. Did Seras live close by? She had to, how would she know to get there so fast otherwise. If this Letti had known there would be a fire she would have gotten out before hand otherwise. Or at least she would if she had any lick of common sense. But there was something else he'd caught from Seras just before the memory began to invade her mind.

Guilt.

She felt it so strongly that it was almost as if he was feeling it. The scent of it too was so strong it was still bitter in his nostrils if he were to breathe in at that moment. Why would she feel guilt over it? Perhaps because she hadn't gotten there on time to save her? No, it wouldn't be as strong then, strong, but not nearly as strong as that. He was guessing that she would have gotten at least a little past it before now too. He caught from her mind that this had happened long before this present day. But the memory was so haunting and so real for her that her very soul had screamed for it to stop.

"Hey."

He looked to where the voice came from, surprised that he hadn't heard her approaching. Was he really thinking so deeply? Apparently he had been and was making it fairly obvious as well. She wore a frown on her features as she regarded him from where she stood in the doorway. One dainty hand was placed on the door frame, her posture just slightly stiffer than he had seen it before. Including during their exchange at his castle.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked, trying to keep her from saying anything about what she undoubtedly knew he was thinking about. She didn't say anything at first, only continued to stare at him with that frown. But after a minute of silence she finally sighed and shook her head as if to rid it of thought. How odd that he hadn't heard her this time.

"I didn't thank you before for saving me. So thank you. For both."

He felt a smirk come to his lips at that and sat up on the bed that was softer than his own had been when alive. She shook her head again and her other hand came up from her side and gestured for him to lay back down. She didn't want her space invaded clearly and it showed when he lay back down and she gave a grateful smile. He wanted to tell her to tell him about the memory she was trying to suppress, but before he could she had turned and left the doorway again. He would get it out of her somehow, but for now he really did need to sleep.

Even vampires needed their rest if they were to function correctly. Otherwise they could make all manner of mistakes when on the hunt. He already was, she had clearly been thinking before, but he hadn't caught a bit of it. And she thought loudly, he must be very worn to not have heard her. So he closed his eyes and let sleep take him, knowing instinct would wake him were she to try anything against him. Same if her mind was to become victim to the other vampire again as well.

From the kitchen, Seras sighed as she cooked herself some breakfast. She didn't need to read his mind to know he had been thinking about her little display before. The evidence had been in the slight crease between his brows and the guilty look he wore when he saw her. Being a vampire however she supposed she could understand why. He had said himself that he'd seen a flash of fire, but she doubted that was all he'd seen. Why would he continue to think about it if not? He had most likely seen as much as she had before she successfully rid herself of the memories. Memories that now tried to emerge again and she quickly shook back out from her mind.

She was the only one that knew of what had happened that night five years ago when she lost everything that mattered to her. The only one besides two that is. But the other two were long gone now. Her hand faltered just as she was chopping up a green pepper and she paused after lowering her hand and the knife in it to the chopping board. A sting of tears hit her eyes as she squeezed them shut, her free hand grasping onto the edge of the counter as if it were a life line. Against her will a few droplets leaked from her eyes even as she tried to fight them back and her breathing hitched as she struggled again with the memory.

She hadn't gone to the funeral, couldn't bring herself to go and let that be her final memory of them. Gone, never to grace the world with their light and laughter again. Cold and dead before their time. She sucked in a ragged breath as more tears forced themselves out, their faces flashing behind her tightly shut eye lids. She should have listened back then, should have given up on her vengeance. But she didn't and because she didn't, she lost them. The guilt consumed her then, but her mind was thankfully and blissfully free of the memory of that night. They say that healing though starts with crying out the pain. So she released the knife, and let go of the counter before making her way to her living room.

There she pulled out an old photo album she hadn't held, much less opened for five years. Her fingers caressed the front of the cloth front then traced the purple heart and rose stitched in. Her throat clenched, her heart gave a tug and her eyes burned with tears as she smiled sadly at it. She knew the first picture she would see inside and knew it wouldn't be doing her heart-which was breaking all over again-any favors. But she couldn't just put this off forever. It was time to let go and make the past stay in the past where it belonged. An odd thing to think with a centuries old count in the next room and his-her-antique chair just across the way. It would have amused her another time, but not now.

Her fingers stopped their caressing and moved to open the album as her heart raced. The cover opened and her blurry eyes found the first picture on the page that held five photos. Beautiful memories that only pained her now where she wished there could only be happy fondness. And she tried to get past her hurting heart to look at the memories forever frozen from the click of a camera. But one prolonged look at the beautiful smiling faces of two blond girls and the album was shut again then held against her chest as she quietly wept for all she'd lost. Those two little girls had lost those smiles only three years after that photo was taken, their ignorance of the workings of the world shattered like fine glass.

Now Seras sat weeping again, wishing for a distraction of some kind and cursing herself for letting it get so bad. That distraction came as the smell of burning eggs reached her and she gasped as she returned the album to where it had been then raced back to the kitchen. She hoped that the count had already fallen asleep and hadn't woken when she was crying and groaned when she removed the skillet from the stove. Well she wouldn't be eating these eggs, they were so black it looked like she'd been frying dirt. It didn't smell much better either.

Well there was no helping it, she needed to run to the grocery store anyway so what better reason than now? With her mind made up, Seras went to the bathroom and groaned as she looked in the mirror. Her eyes were so red and puffy a person could tell just from a glance she'd been crying and if that didn't give her away, the drying tear trails did. Whoever-she decided-first said that healing started with crying it out didn't know what they were talking about. Besides, she figured she'd already done that long before then. She had wept until she had no more tears and she lay gasping after they died and it had time to really sink in. She had spent many hours vomiting then dry heaving after nothing was left in her stomach. She hadn't ate and only slept when her exhausted body forced her to as she went about her daily life with all the sense of a zombie. At least she'd continued showering regularly, but even that was done on auto pilot.

It was only when reality smacked her in the face a month later that she'd finally snapped out of it. She'd been mugged at gun point and didn't care at all that she was staring down the barrel of a gun. If she did care at that moment in time she had only hoped that her attacker would kill her and let her join those taken from her. It was mostly a blur of what had truly gone on that evening. She didn't know if she actually asked her attacker to shoot her or not, but distinctly remembered when the choice was taken out of his hands. One minute he was holding his gun at her head, the next moment he had been tackled to the ground. She remembered that she had turned to who had saved her mechanically and there she saw her father's friend Henry Mitchum shouting at her. More like demanding to know why she'd just stood there and let her attacker do as he pleased.

In no uncertain terms he had told her it could have been much worse if he hadn't gotten there in time. Her attacker could have decided that he was going to relieve some sexual tension on her. She liked to think that she would have snapped out of her trance like state had he tried. But even now she didn't know if she would have. All in all Henry-or Uncle Henry as she'd called him as a little girl-was right. It could have been a whole lot worse had he not been there to help her. And if her attacker, Jerome Fischer hadn't been apprehended that night, then who knew how many other unsuspecting victims could have fallen prey to him. Turned out that Uncle Henry hadn't been far off the mark either, Jerome had a long record of rape, robbery, murder, and assault. He'd only been there that night because he'd escaped from the penitentiary.

Thank God for Uncle Henry.

She turned on the tap in the bathroom then and washed her hands free of the bell pepper juice on them before splashing her face. After toweling dry she looked in the mirror again, noticing her eyes were barely pink now and had lost most of the puffiness. It would do she decided as she got a piece of toilet paper and blew her nose which had started to run a bit. She was sure that it would fade completely by the time she reached the store anyway.

But what could she feed the count?

The thought made her pause as she returned to the living room and took her keys. She wouldn't let him snack on her and as an officer she couldn't just let him hunt here either. She'd rather not let him return to his own era so he could either. Past or not, they were still people and she had a duty to protect.

'I'll think of something.'

But for now, it was time to worry about herself and think of what she would do when it came time for her shift that evening. She couldn't exactly take tall, dark, and handsome with her and doubted that he'd just let her go either. And honestly she wouldn't get far trying to force her way out. She got hella lucky getting out of his castle and even more so that he hadn't killed her when he got to her time. She decided she'd think of that later too and turned off her stove before leaving the house for the store.

Evening came relatively quickly from her perspective and with it the Count waking up. She had already called her boss and feigned sickness as well as told him she had a relative visiting from overseas. It had given her a headache from his yelling, but at least that was out of the way. But the best she had been able to think of in regards to the Count's meal was from the meat she had set out to cook in a bit. She didn't know if he'd accept it or even if it would be enough to satisfy him and she couldn't cook a lot of meat just for herself. All she could do was hope that it would be.

It seemed though she need not worry about that when he came in casual as can be and was sucking blood from a packet, using the tube as a straw. That brought on another line of questioning though. Where had he gotten it? He couldn't have gone back to his own time and snatched one from a hospital of some kind. Did they even do transfusions back then? Yes, she recalled that the book had told of a transfusion between Lucy and her husband-what's his face, was it Seward or Quincy?-she would need to re-read that part.

Coming out of her thoughts, she realized he was staring at her and had drained the packet. Had he heard her thoughts again? A grin from him gave her, her answer and she groaned as she stood up. He didn't say a word as he pulled another packet from a pocket in his pants and started draining that one as well. He followed her to the kitchen, still not saying anything as she began separating the meat and flattening the beef into patties for cheeseburgers. She supposed he was too busy feeding himself to say anything to her just yet so she focused on what she was doing instead. When they were in the frying pan was when he finally spoke up.

"I suppose you did not want me going hunting hm?"

"What are you talking about?" she answered as she added salt and pepper to the patties.

"The blood."

She looked over at him in surprise at that and he held the second empty packet up as if to further emphasize his point. She looked from the packet and up to him. So he hadn't gotten it for himself? Where had it come from then? He must have heard her thoughts because he was suddenly frowning and baring his fangs before his eyes closed and his frown deepened. It concerned her, if it didn't come from her and he hadn't gotten it for himself, had it been the other vampire? If so then it could be poisoned since Vlad had kept her from going to him that day.

"Vlad?" she questioned softly, cautiously going to him.

"Quiet human!" he growled back.

It made her start slightly in response before a frown settled onto her features and she returned to her cooking.

"Fine, see if I worry again."

It was silent then save for the burgers cooking in their own grease and the fridge door opening. She pulled out some assorted vegetables for some veggie stir-fry and set to work on that as well before he finally spoke up again. He was closer than before she noted, much closer, looking over her shoulder in fact.

"I had to make sure there was nothing harmful in that blood. To do that I need to look inside myself and I need silence."

She only nodded at what he said and continued her cooking as he watched her. In some movies it had depicted the count as interested in some mortal things and cooking was among them. Was it actually true? Going by his observation it was and he continued to watch as she worked. He moved at times when she needed to get by him to open the freezer for the frozen chips, open a cabinet for a pan, or open or close the oven. But he was right over her shoulder again when she was flipping the patties or her stir fry and when she served it onto her plate and began to eat. It was a little unnerving actually, being watched like she was and by the world's most dangerous predator at that.

"Are you not a predator yourself?"

The question surprised her and she lowered her burger just as she was about to take a bite.

"Excuse me?"

"Does human kind not kill to feed themselves?"

He gestured to her plate and she looked down at it. He was right, beef came from cows, cows which were slain for their meat to feed the human race. So was fish, pigs, sheep. And in some parts of the world even frogs and alligators. But she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing she agreed if he hadn't already heard it from her thoughts.

"Not all humans eat meat," she replied with a shrug. "I do so sure, I guess that makes me a predator in my own way."

"Do plants not live before taken from their soil, roots, trees, or vines?"

He was right again. So she supposed every human in some form or fashion were indeed predators. The only difference was what they ate. So really the only difference between human kind and vampires was ability and diet. Some humans were even allergic to direct sunlight and silver.

"Hm..food for thought," she conceded.

It seemed he was happy with getting his point across because he left her to her meal and disappeared into the living room where she heard the sofa cushions give under him. She still thought about it as she ate her meal and wondered what the world would think if it was brought to light. How many would give it deep thought and how many would simply brush it aside? It would make many realize that immortal or mortal they were all just trying to survive and in that way they were using base instinct. A human body couldn't survive without nourishment. Neither could a vampire's. A human body couldn't function right or survive without sleep. She'd bet a vampire's couldn't either. A human body had allergies, some fatal. Big shock, so did a vampire.

Very interesting.

She was still thinking about it when she finished her food and went to start cleaning her dishes and once again, there he was watching her. She didn't complain about it this time even mentally.

She was sitting, drinking a glass of wine with him-yes, to her surprise he could safely drink it-when she turned on the television. The start he gave when it came on was comical. She had to stifle a laugh as he looked around for the sound before his wide eyes settled on the screen and the commercial showing on it. That's right he had never seen a television before and never would have if he hadn't followed her to her time. It made her feel bad for him. In spite of how she tried to get under his skin before because he scared her, she really did care for him. He didn't seem interested in killing her anymore either. How many things would he never get to see?

Certainly not television if it hadn't been for tonight. He'd never see a smart phone or any phone at all really. Were cars around when he went to London? Certainly not the sort they had now for sure. That was another reason he'd watched her cooking before wasn't it? He'd never seen a stove like that before. He'd never hear the new music either or the movies and tv shows that regularly came out. Heck, he'd never see twenty-first century London. She decided right then and there she'd show him all she could. Or even better, keep him from getting slain in the first place. There had to be a reason she was able to travel back to his time, perhaps that was the reason.

Watching him as she was, she noticed right when he heard her thoughts. He blinked going even more still than he already was then turned his head so their gazes met. And the look he gave her.. The only way she could think to describe it would be awe. As if he couldn't believe that someone would save him from the fate he'd have otherwise. She realized quickly that was probably exactly what had caused that expression and she could have sworn his eyes softened further. It made her want to cry all over again. She stood by what she'd always thought, the Count was just a man wanting love and acceptance. Human kind feared what they couldn't understand, and what did they do when they couldn't understand and feared something or someone?

Kill them.

Well this was one man that wouldn't be. Not while she was alive and breathing.

"I swear," she said aloud, wanting the full gravity to sink in.

She knew he'd heard every thought in her mind by then. It was again confirmed when he smiled at her. It was a true and soft smile which she returned. It lost some of its softness soon after and he turned his head so his eyes focused back on the TV screen. He didn't need to say a word, she had a pretty good idea what he was thinking. Or more accurately what he remembered. One thing she'd told him is that the reason he was slain was Mina Murry and going by the jolt now and his shock before, he had already met or at least heard of her. That woman had to have given at least the impression that she wouldn't do something like that. Action spoke so much louder than words ever could. And what had Seras herself shown up until then? Mistrust, caution, she even fled from him once and now she was saying she'd help him. Why should he believe her?

Seras knew how she could prove it though and it meant opening up a door that had remained sealed for five years. One that he'd caught a glimpse of earlier in the day. What better way to show loyalty and trust than to open herself up for the first time? She couldn't keep it locked up forever anyway, sooner or later it was bound to come out. Scientifically proven, it would come out on its own if she didn't go mad first. She moved her eyes from him at last and to her wine and downed the rest of what was in the glass then set it down on the coffee table. She refilled her glass and then his when she gestured and he nodded then set the bottle back down and took a deep breath. She'd have to get herself prepared if she was going to tell him, it was going to take a lot to get there. And in spite of no doubt hearing her thoughts he didn't even glance her way and she knew he was letting her have the time she needed.

Maybe she was going about it all wrong though. Let it come naturally, it may actually make the healing process start like that too. Where as forcing it out may just make her feel worse. Either way it was time to-metaphorically-unchain that door and open it a crack. So she took another deep breath and slowly let it out before standing and going to a bookshelf near her television where she kept her movies. She could feel his eyes on her as she bent to the bottom shelf and took an old VHS tape in hand then moved to set up the VCR. Once that was done she hesitated for a few seconds before inserting the tape into the player then moving back to the sofa where she set it up with a remote.

A blue screen showed first before the screen got fuzzy, then finally a clear picture showed. In the video a beautiful brunette woman appeared with a bright smile of victory because she got the recorder working. She introduced herself as Selena Victoria then turned the camera onto a light brunette man just walking in the front door. He was dressed in a full policeman uniform, his badge declaring him Chief Victoria. He'd barely made it in the door before two blond girls ages five and seven ran and grabbed him around his legs happily cheering "daddy!".

"Letti, Seras, let your father relax before you attack him," Selena giggled.

"Sorry~!" the girls chorused and scampered off to go watch TV.

Seras could feel when the Count turned to look at her, but didn't take her eyes from the screen as she bit her lip in an attempt to keep from crying. It didn't help to keep her breathing even though. She could feel her eyes stinging again when Selena welcomed her husband with a "welcome home Peter" and they shared a sweet kiss. Unknown to the adults the girls had snuck over to the door frame and made gagging sounds then laughed and ran back to the tv when the camera pointed at them. That didn't stop Peter from chuckling and running after them and Selena followed, laughing herself when the girls squealed and laughed from being tickled by their father. The tickle fight only lasted a few minutes before Peter turned to his wife still beaming a smile.

"Selena, is the food done?"

"Sure is, just waiting on you dear."

"Good, I'm starved. Girls go wash your paws and let's eat."

The girls immediately jumped up and ran to the bathroom to do as they were told. The video cut off there then picked back up a moment later. They were all on a train this time heading on vacation to Romania which Seras who was six now proudly proclaimed when her mother asked her. Seras smiled when Selena asked the small girl what she was going to do if she saw Abraham and Mina. The child had grown angry and said she "was going to beat them to death till they were dead."

She heard a chuckle come from beside her and turned her head for the first time since putting the video on. The Count sat watching with a smile as the child continued to rant about them, stomping her foot for emphasis here and there. But Seras had to look away from him and the video with a blush when Selena asked her what she would do if she met the Count. Instantly the rant cut off and she got a big smile and a dreamy expression.

"I'm going to be his Countess!" she stated with certainty.

Seras winced when it was said and stiffened feeling his eyes settle on her again.

"Heh...k-kids right?"

It took a few moments before there was any sound besides the home movie playing. But finally he answered, though his voice was so soft she barely heard him.

"Indeed.."

She waited until she was sure his attention had shifted off her and back to video before she straightened again and took her wine glass back in hand. Her mother was now explaining to anyone who would come to watch the video that "her little Seras" was a big Dracula fan, so much so that she called him the hero and those who slayed him the villain.

"They are!" the six year old called from where she was sitting.

"Right, of course sweetheart," Selena patiently replied.

The video continued on, showing their time in Romania and the fun they had as well as Seras becoming more and more disappointed every morning. When asked why the final day she told them that it was because she didn't get to meet the Count. Her mother told her it was probably because he knew her bedtime and didn't want to wake her up. That cheered her up and she said she'd just come back when she was older and didn't have a bedtime. Letti never failed to tease her for it and put in her two cents.

"Probably doesn't want to marry a rug rat anyway," she teased and stuck her tongue out.

"Shut up, Letti!" Seras growled back.

The video cut off again and showed holidays and as the girls got older. It showed Letti graduating from Elementary School and showed her first day of Junior High. The last one was of the following Halloween with both girls dressed up for trick or treating. Letti age ten chose to be a black cat and Seras who was now eight dressed as a witch pouted because there were no vampire costumes left. It caused the Count to chuckle again then the video was cut off again and this time the screen stayed fuzzy before showing the blue screen again as the tape automatically rewound itself. Vlad, confused by it being over turned to Seras who sat without moving for a minute or so then picked up her wine again and took a long drink. This was it.

"That was the first and only home video we ever got to make before my parents were killed.."

It was another normal Thanksgiving night for the Victoria's. Seras and Letti were at home watching some television while her parents went out to the grocery store for some yams. Because it wasn't a Thanksgiving without them. The girls were hungry and the rest of the food was already done, their turkey loving mother had already given them a little of the white meat, but it had only gotten them started. They never ate without both of their parents present though and ignored their growling stomachs. Seras and Letti sat laughing together at one of the cartoon character's clumsiness when Seras' laugh abruptly cut off. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Very wrong.

Instantly her mind went back to the recurring nightmare she'd been having for the past two weeks. The one where her parents are on their way home and suddenly, without warning their car just explodes with them in it, killing them. She had told her parents her nightmare and that she kept seeing it and had been sleeping with them each night after it came to haunt her. Letti had teased her about it and life went on until the night came again. Now that nightmare hit her again, awake and she gasped before she shot off the couch and into the night, ignoring Letti who was calling her name as she ran after her.

She didn't know how long it took her to get to the scene, but it seemed an eternity long. All she knew was that she reached the area she had seen and saw their car with them in it. They were fine and hadn't seen her yet. But just as she was about to be relieved a bunch of men dressed in black came roaring through on motorcycles. The bad feeling came back with a vengeance and she opened her mouth to shout for her parents to look out. She didn't get a chance to get the words out before they pulled out all sorts of different guns. A spray of bullets went flying, some of them hit civilians, but most hit the car. A few hit her dad who had been trying to get out of the line of fire and her mother had already ducked to get away from the assault.

Time went slower and Seras could swear to this day that she could hear her own hammering heart beat as she tried to run to them, but was held back by her sister. She couldn't hear anything Letti was screaming at her and could only struggle to get away as she watched in terror. She saw the exact moment that her father was stuck with a killing shot and when a spray of bullets went over the car hood. The car went out of control, her father now dead and careened into the side of a building near Letti and Seras. The eight year old just knew her mother was still alive and struggled even harder to get away when she seen the woman raise from the seat. Two sets of blue eyes met across the way, Selena's got wider before Seras' view was blocked by fire caused by the explosion of the car.

Time returned to normal and she heard herself screaming as her eyes were covered by her sister's hand. But it was too late, she'd already seen it and she'd never unsee it. Her eyes didn't stay covered for long as a sobbing Letti took her firmly by the arm and whimpered out that they needed to go to the police. Seras could already hear sirens in the distance, but while she was still consumed with sorrow, it was making way to share the space of her soul with vengeance and hatred. Blue eyes, turning red from tears searched for and found the motorcycle gang that had killed her parents then locked on the symbol on their jackets. A red Nazi sign was what she found and right then and there she wore she'd go after them and make them pay with their lives.

She didn't know how long she continued to stare after the gang even after they were long gone. But her line of sight soon turned to Uncle Henry who was urging them toward a police cruiser. She could tell from his eyes that he was fighting tears back and would have questioned why if her father hadn't told her that a cop must never cry on duty. Uncle Henry broke that rule when he was denied custody of she and Letti because he didn't make enough salary to support them and his own family all at once. He was sobbing when he promised them that he would set up a trust fund for them and that they could come stay with he and his family when they got out of the orphanage.

The orphanage was hell on earth. The other kids were either outright bullies or didn't do anything to stop it. Seras was the one mostly picked on and was the one who got in trouble for it with the Orphanage lady she never bothered remembering the name of. Letti was the only one to defend her and during their time there refused any families that wouldn't take Seras as well. Seras did the same, they stayed together or they didn't go anywhere. But Letti was older than her and when she turned eighteen she had to leave, Seras who was sixteen at the time had to stay. Letti had begged to let her come with her, but they wouldn't hear it so her sister promised her that she would get the trust fund from Uncle Henry and get a job then come get her.

Without Letti to defend her, things got worse. Seras was often beat up, her food was stolen off her plate, and she was forced to sleep on the cold floor no matter how cold it was. She often got sick because of it and was separated from the others, quarantined was more like it. She wasn't even allowed to go outside and the room she was in was hardly bigger than a broom closet. There was no window either as if she was being punished for being sick. Her meals during that time wasn't anything more than broth and a small cup of water. But it did it's job and she was released to the other room, allowed to go outside, and have better meals within a few days. Until the next time she got sick.

Seras was counting the days until she turned eighteen and could also say goodbye to that place for good. Letti had called not too long before her seventeenth birthday to regretfully tell her that her boyfriend at the time had left her when he found out Letti was carrying his baby. All her funds would have to go to her child and she would take maternity leave soon. She knew that guy was a creep, he'd seemed nice enough when Letti came for a visit and had him with her. He was polite and seemed to be crazy about Letti, but there was just something about him that Seras didn't like. He seemed like the use and lose type to her despite all his manners. She felt no victory when she figured out she was right. Nine months later, Letti had her baby, a sweet little girl with brown hair and blue eyes. Both sisters tearfully agreed that she looked like their mother and Seras was touched to hear that the baby was named after her and their mother. Ceres Selena Victoria. Cee Cee was her nick name.

But Seras had never forgotten her vengeance and when she turned eighteen she left that place gladly, but not before sucker punching Tommy and Jack McCoy in the face. Maybe that would teach them not to pick on people anymore. Uncle Henry had seen her do it from where he'd been waiting by the cruiser, but instead of scolding her he grinned and gave her a high five. He'd told her that her father would be proud of her for standing up for herself and that she'd knocked out one of the boys with her punch. She'd shrugged, but grinned in pride.

She stayed with Uncle Henry and his family for a while then took the trust fund and set off on her mission. It took nothing to find a good motorcycle and a willing crew to ride with. She'd told them on no uncertain terms what she was doing and was simultaneously thrilled and even more vengeful when she learned they were all wrong by the same gang. They had all lost someone from the hands of the self proclaimed Red Nazis and wouldn't let them continue doing it. The police hardly ever found them, but when they did they couldn't pin anything on them. The gang was clever, making sure they were never caught on camera and always attacked in groups and left their faces hidden by masks and bandannas so no one could identify them.

For a long time, Seras and her gang chased leads they heard through rumor, but it seemed like the Red Nazis had heard there was someone after them. They led them on a wild goose chase all around the country. But Seras and her gang were relentless and swore they would find them. She didn't stop, never took a break until one night a vivid nightmare terrorized her awake. In it Letti and Cee Cee were fine one moment and in the next a loud explosion rocked the ground and then fire. What happened to their parents came to the forefront of her mind immediately and she wasted no time getting on her bike, explaining to her second in command, Rusty what happened and why she had to go, then high tailed it toward London.

She had gotten the vision multiple times before her parents were murdered and wasted no time this time. But fate must love to torture her especially, it wasn't good enough. She got there the following evening after riding non-stop and turned to kick down the stand on her motorcycle. Then an explosion shook the ground and Seras stood frozen in place with wide eyes.

No, its not.. It's not.. Her house will still be there when I turn around.

That's what she told herself, but she couldn't bring herself to turn around. She just kept denying it, but the explosion brought a lot of people out of their homes and one of them ran into her shoulder in their haste. The impact made Seras spin around and her eyes locked onto the sight of the burning building that used to be Letti's home. She must have ran to the scene then though she didn't remember doing it and just like that night over ten years ago she was held back as she struggled to run into the burning building. She could hear herself screaming that they could still be alive as she struggled, even when pieces of the house began to collapse under the greedy, licking flames.

She couldn't hear anything beyond her own screams and her raging heart beat until she broke free somehow, but was tackled to the ground no sooner than she got to the sidewalk.

"Don't! If the explosion didn't kill them, the fire did!" Someone was shouting at her.

She ceased her struggling only then, knowing he was right. She didn't look at him, but shook her head as her sobs began to make it difficult to breathe. The movement of her shaking head made her eyes pass and then snap onto something on the road nearby though. There in spray paint, freshly done was a Red Nazis symbol. They had found Letti and this had no doubt been a warning aimed at her. It only made the fires of vengeance burn all the hotter, growing so strong in fact it overwhelmed every thing and numbed her from the inside out. She still didn't know how she got free of the man holding her or how she knew where those bastards were, but one minute she was tackled on the ground, the next she was holding an unpinned grenade in her hand which she still didn't know how she got. Time slowed once again as she walked with deadly promise in her step toward the warehouse they were in.

She remembered throwing the grenade harder than she'd ever thrown anything in her life, she heard curses from inside and panicked voices just before the explosion. None of them made it out alive, those who survived the explosion and ran outside, she shot without mercy and no enjoyment.

She was sobbing again now as she told the story, pausing here and there when she couldn't go on and he listened silently and intently. He had at some point moved and held her as she retold and relived everything she told him, but didn't speak and she didn't move away.

"I couldn't go to their funeral. I couldn't bring myself to let that be my final memory of them. But days after I went to their graves. I left flowers for my parents and for Letti and Cee Cee my coat and gloves. I swore then and there I would never do what I'd done again. That I'd go into law enforcement like daddy did. I told them all I was sorry and knew it was my fault that they'd all died.." A pause and a sob. "The nightmares hadn't told me when it would happen, just where when my parents died. It was the same with Letti and Cee Cee, but... Those bastards only went after them because I was after them!"

She broke down then, sobbing her heart out, the heart that was breaking and her soul cried out along with her. It was all there now, out in the open where it would be for the rest of her life. The door had been cracked then blew to splinters and would remain open for good. In the back of her mind she didn't know if she regretted opening it or not. It hurt, it hurt like hell. But it was no longer inside and threatening her mind or poisoning her soul.


	11. These Dangerous Games We Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the rough night Seras has had how is she holding up now? How is Vlad and Seras going to become closer? And the other vampire may have more in mind than it first appears.

It was still hard to tell whether or not she was glad that she'd finally exposed all of the skeletons in her closet. She couldn't deny that she felt a bit better than she had since all of it had happened. But now that it had been revealed, it wasn't easy to shut it out anymore. In fact it was impossible. That door just wouldn't close anymore, it was blasted to splinters. There was no denying either that Seras had been in some form of denial all this time. But now that she had spoken about it, it had exposed it. Not just to him, but to herself as well. For so long she had went along her daily life just letting herself pretend she was okay until she made herself believe it.

She had once read somewhere that there were five stages to grief. The first of them were denial, denial which she had felt when Letti's house exploded behind her. It seemed that, that denial had remained though. It had never actually passed by even as she went through the other stages. The second stage was anger and she'd had plenty of that when her parents were murdered before her eyes. Even when a numbness overtook her for a while, that anger remained. She became detached for a long time. Disbanded her gang, took odd jobs and slept in motels. It took nearly running her fist through a mirror in the motel she was staying in to get her to snap out of that stage. She hadn't been able to look at herself in the mirror anymore and nearly broke one when she looked up and saw her reflection in the bathroom.

Third stage was bargaining which she'd bypassed in favor of depression for a time. Being numb and detached after a crying session in that motel bathroom. That was when she started to do things on auto pilot. She didn't feel a thing anymore, no anger, fear, sadness, not even hunger. In it's own way that was worse than anything else. She was just...empty. She didn't even care that she was getting weaker by the day from malnourishment and dehydration. She didn't care when she walked down the same street of her childhood home. She would even stop there and look at that house from time to time and not feel a damn thing. She'd just blankly stare at it, some part of her wanting to feel something, but just couldn't. Not even staring down the barrel of a gun had done anything to her until Uncle Henry saved her. Then she became overwhelmed. As if all the emotions she hadn't been feeling were coming in all at once.

She'd had to be admitted to the hospital shortly after she was nearly mugged. She had gone without food and water for too long and it was truly a wonder that she hadn't collapsed. That's what the doctors had told her anyway. She was there for two weeks, being visited regularly by Henry when he could find time after work or on days he had off the beat. By the end of the second week she could eat soups and drink water again, the following week she was back to more solid foods and was finally released from the hospital. They had reprimanded her the whole time she'd been there for not taking better care of herself, she'd even been put on suicide watch for a time. But they hadn't had to see her for the same thing again, she had snapped out her funk..well at least that stage of it.

The bargaining stage was late, but came all the same. She prayed every morning and night while at the academy, making a deal with whatever powers that be that if she could somehow get through the academy then she would get everyone she loved back. That she'd wake up to find it had all been just some long, horrible nightmare brought on by a fever or something. She had really believed that she'd get what she asked for too. Even with set backs when she failed at a certain course or exercise she would just push herself that much harder. She ended up graduating valedictorian after making it through the academy and when she laid down for sleep in her new apartment she believed she'd wake up a child again in her old bed, in that old house.

It went without saying that didn't happen and she sank right back into depression. Unlike before she didn't sink so low as to stop taking care of herself. She even did such a good job on the force that she even convinced herself she was fine. There was still a slight bit of numbness that hit her though. She would laugh or smile but not fully feel the happiness like she once would have. She would frown or be displeased, but not feel the full extent of it. She would eat and drink, but wasn't hungry and thirsty. But still she convinced herself she was just fine. Even when she had to have a glass of wine every night to help her sleep. Even when she woke up and didn't feel rested and the sun seemed to be too bright and stung her eyes, making her have to use sunglasses. Not even when she started to feel more tired all the time, but still couldn't sleep and when she became easily distracted.

It didn't really click for her that she wasn't fine, that she was depressed and in still denial until that last night when she'd exposed her darkest secret to the count. Then and only then did the final stage finally find her.

Acceptance.

It hit her with all the force of a wrecking ball last evening. They were really gone, she really wasn't getting them back, and she'd let herself cling to the denial for far too long. Her heart had literally began hurting the night before and it seemed it had almost done more damage than just making her sob. According to the count her heart had began to beat irregularly and he had to coach her to take more steady breaths. It seemed to be hours of her getting her sobs under control so she could inhale for five seconds and then exhale another five. But it had worked and she was okay. Still quite a bit sad and even angry with herself, but that was better than where she had been for a certainty.

It had been too much for her last night though and she'd ended up exhausted by the time she got her breathing under control. But when she woke up that morning she felt rested for the first time in a long time. It made her wonder if he had done something to help her. Maybe keep the nightmares away with some kind of power or something? Who knew? Either way she was feeling more like herself, better. She even managed to smile and truly feel the satisfaction that hadn't really fully hit her when she looked at that chair again on her way to her dining table. 

"One: Victoria, Hellsing: Zero.."

A chuckle told her that the count was up before he even appeared around the corner. She grinned at him before taking the bit of meat off her fork and chewed. Seemed he had heard her again, must be nice having vampiric hearing.

"Evening, Vlad," she greeted as she picked up her wine and took a sip.

"Good evening to you as well, Seras."

Was his accent thicker this evening? She couldn't tell, but the effect hit her nonetheless. Her body gave a little shiver that she hoped was a little too subtle for him to catch. But his grin grew wider as he took a seat opposite of her and she knew that she was foolish to hope for such a thing. Of course he'd catch it, he probably saw every little shift of color in her irises. She shook it off anyway and went back to her meal and he watched her eat for a minute or two before pulling two more blood packets from his pockets. She stared at them quietly, wondering where they came from. She knew from their previous discussion in her kitchen that he didn't get them for himself and she knew for a fact she hadn't gone out to get them either.

"Quite disconcerting is it not?" he asked and she could only nod as she lifted her eyes to his. 

"Any ideas about where they're coming from?"

"I suppose it could be the vampire that was trying to hypnotize you. But if so would it not be poisoned?"

It made sense to her, besides Vlad the only one that would know she'd need that in her apartment was the other vampire. But if it was in fact the other one then wouldn't it be poisoned? Vlad was in it's way of getting to her. Unless this was some kind of peace offering or something. 'I'm sorry I tried to steal your prey please take this as my formal apology'. That's probably exactly what she looked like to another vampire too. Or it could be that the other vampire was just trying to make it seem that way and have Vlad comfortable enough to stop checking and just drink it, then poison him. A strategist's and manipulator's move.

Vlad nodded in agreement to her thoughts as he picked up the packets and stared hard at them. Another vampire would know that he needed blood, what if it tried to sneak something in there this time? Wait.. If it could sneak blood in then..

She looked down at her own food, suddenly more reluctant to eat it. What if it was contaminated with something? If the other vampire really was a strategist then it might have a back up plan. If Vlad didn't go for the blood being supplied by it then the next means of feeding would be from her. Was she eating something she shouldn't be? It seemed Vlad wasn't going to just brush the theory aside when he stepped over to her side of the table and bent down to closely examine her meal. Her hands shook as she lowered them from the table and onto her lap, staring at her plate and watching him from her peripheral.

"I smell blood, old blood. His most likely, but it seems because you thoroughly cook your meat that the blood lost it's power."

It was still more than enough for her mouth to go dry and her stomach to turn. She pushed the plate away from herself and shot to her bathroom as her stomach heaved. She just barely made it there and shut the door.

**********************************************************

Seras could practically feel Vlad just outside the bathroom door even after her stomach was emptied, the toilet flushed, and she rinsed out her mouth. When she got her shaking under control was when she opened the door. Sure enough, there he was looking down at her with concern. She offered him a smile she didn't feel like giving and moved past him into the living room where she plopped down on her sofa. He sat down beside her, not making a sound aside from the cushions shifting. She knew he was waiting for her to say something and felt grateful to him once again. Even if it was only because her thoughts were a jumbled mess, he was probably hearing it like dozens of radio frequencies all trying to come in at once.

"I...I just can't stomach it.. I mean this strange vampire is somehow getting in my apartment without either or us knowing. He's contaminating my food with his blood, which makes no flipping sense by the way if he's trying to poison you. I don't know how much I even ate of--" She had to pause there to swallow thickly when her stomach churned again in defiance of her thoughts. She practiced regulating her breathing like what she did last night and only when she was sure that she could speak again without dry heaving did she continue. "I don't know how much of...of that is in me right now. Is it all contaminated?"

Her heart sank when he nodded in confirmation and she groaned as she slid down the cushions and folded her arms. It wasn't just going to be as simple as throwing all of that food out, the other vampire could just contaminate that too. And she was not going to eat anything with his blood in it, period. But it still made no sense to her. Why on God's green Earth was it trying to make her eat it's blood if the goal was to poison Vlad?

"It is not to poison me, but to force a bond on you."

She could have sworn her heart stopped right then and there as her entire body went stiff. It made her gut rebel once again and only when she realized she was holding her breath did she release it and begin to breathe normally.

"Force a-- Why?!"

"I do not know my dear. My first thought was that he intended to prey upon you. But this is different. It's as if..."

She had a feeling she didn't want to hear what he was theorizing, but she still couldn't keep herself from turning her head and looking at him inquisitively. She had a feeling she knew exactly what he was going to say and prayed she was wrong.

"It's as if what?" she asked, hating that her voice sounded as quiet and small as it did.

It seemed he was reluctant to say it too when he looked at her with hesitation. She could tell he didn't like what he was about to say either.

"It's as if he wants you to be a bride or a mate.."

Just as she'd been afraid of. He had said the exact thing she was hoping and praying he wouldn't say. She had somehow caught some other vampire's attention and now he was trying to force some moves on her without her being aware. Now that she was thinking about it, she had noticed that her food had a different taste lately. Subtle enough not to cause alarm and just shrug it off, but noticeable enough to slightly tell. And she had been thinking she'd just imagined the different taste or her taste buds were changing or something!

"Is there some way to keep it from happening..?" she asked more calmly than she was feeling.

"There is two.."

She perked up at that. "What are they?"

"You have to be pursued by a more powerful vampire. Or the other one must be slain."

"Great..." She deflated, leaning heavily into the cushions again.

"Thankfully for you Seras, you have seemed to have your eye on another vampire for quite some time."

Her eyes got wide and she felt her cheeks heat up. She should have known letting him see that part of the tape would come back to haunt her. She hated being embarrassed so she snarked back the only way she could think of at that moment.

"Oh bite me!"

"Gladly."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBC...
> 
> Dreamer: How does that foot taste Seras dear?
> 
> Seras: F*** you!
> 
> Alucard: *Grins* If you insist.
> 
> Seras: Eeep!
> 
> Dreamer: *Waves to readers.* I hope you liked the chapter, you know what to do lovelies~
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and the OC's which have appeared and will appear in the story.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I owe nothing and claim no ownership. Hellsing belongs to Kouta Hirano and the team that made it come to life.


End file.
